


Undertow

by sgvirtualseason, SpaceshipsAreCool



Series: Supergirl Virtual Season [5]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Animated GIFs, Bisexual Female Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Collaboration, Cover Art, Digital Art, F/F, Femslash, Gifset, Guns, Journalism, Kidnapping, Kissing, Lesbian Character, Magic, Magic-Users, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, Spells & Enchantments, Torture, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-23 00:59:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 31,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11392071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgvirtualseason/pseuds/sgvirtualseason, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceshipsAreCool/pseuds/SpaceshipsAreCool
Summary: Civilians with no apparent connection to each other are being attacked, ending up in the hospital with several hours of memory loss, and it’s Maggie’s job to find out why. Or rather, it’s Maggie and Kara’s job, because despite her reluctance to work with the young reporter, Maggie discovers that it’s not so easy to shake Kara Danvers loose once she’s gotten it into her head that she wants to help.





	1. Act I

  
  


First up, some killer Zatanna art for that all important mental image while you read. This is thanks to the wizardry of @xxtorchxx!

Then this stunning poster is an @ofpensandcupakes creation. Worried about Kara yet? Hmm….

  
  



	2. Act I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zatanna Zatara arrives from another Earth with one goal in mind; to find and destroy Supergirl no matter who else gets hurt in the process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t you just love the effect on this gif by @xy0009? ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))

**Title: Undertow**

**TEASER**

The light pressed at her from all sides, blues and greens and yellows crushing her with their nothingness, but when she opened her mouth to cry out, the only sound that escaped was a soft hiss as the air was yanked from her lungs.

And then it was over.

Zatanna stumbled as her feet hit solid ground, the portal ejecting her with enough force to send her careening forward several steps, and she gasped as the vacuum was replaced with the crisp, cool air of National City’s night. Blinking against the splotches of color that still swarmed her vision, she crouched low to let herself settle, trusting in the black of her hair and magician’s suit to hide her away.

Not that she was particularly worried. She had chosen her location of arrival well, a parking lot on the opposite side of the city from where she was planning on staying. Even if the natives of this Earth had the technology to alert them to a rift between worlds, she would be far away by the time anyone arrived to check it out. Her knowledge of the city’s camera grid from her own Earth, as well as her habit of scanning for any obvious security lenses, would allow her to move from this place quickly without leaving a trace.

Finally, the last spots of color began to fade and Zatanna unfurled, turning her head to check for any threat she hadn’t accounted for. It was quiet, all empty, just as she had predicted, and her muscles were just starting to release their tension when her gaze fell across some graffiti painted on the side of a concrete wall. It was that ‘S,’ tall and proud and too bright even in the darkness, and her lips curved into a sneer.

“I’m coming for you.” The promise hovered there, lingering without a wind to carry it away. “And when I do, Supergirl, you are going to _burn_.”

***

**ACT I**

Maggie stretched out the process of signing her name to the bottom of the last form for as long as possible, looping the ‘y’ with extra precision and taking three full seconds to dot the ‘i’ in just the right place. It was unnecessary, of course, this paperwork would get filed away never to be seen again, but it was only 10:17am, and with nothing else in sight, her mind was liable to drift into dangerous territory.

Objectively, she was glad things had been slow recently, but there was another part of her that craved nothing more than a juicy murder or string of overly bizarre thefts. She had become a cop for a reason, one that had nothing to do with running around as a Cadmus lackey, and sometimes when she was on a case that wouldn’t attract their interest, she could almost remember what that reason had been. Normally that was enough to settle her, as if doing honest police work once in a while could balance out all her sins, but recently she’d had cause to seek out an escape from something else as well, other thoughts that wouldn’t let her rest.

The next three minutes passed in a cloud of deep concentration as Maggie affixed every item in front of her with her full attention, the imposed order providing a sense of calm. Or it did, until she pushed the last row of pens into place and realized her mistake.

Her desk was never that cluttered but now it was pristine, leaving a seemingly endless expanse of solid, mahogany wood to stare back at her. Wood the same color as a set of deep, soulful brown eyes that Maggie wanted nothing to do with.

That was a lie. She wanted everything to do with them, and what made it worse was that there were moments she thought they might want something to do with her as well.

It was so easy to be around Alex Danvers, to give in and reach for her even though Maggie knew she shouldn’t. She had to distance herself because if she allowed herself to get carried away in the aura of safety and confidence that Alex projected, it wouldn’t be long before Alex figured out what she really was, and that was not something Maggie was willing to face on top of everything else.

“Sawyer!”

“Captain!” Maggie shot up from her desk, muscles tensing as a shiver of apprehension made its way down her spine. The reaction had been trained into her over months of being pushed into increasingly worsening crimes, reinforced by every knowing look, every pointed grin the other detectives sent her way when she left do to his bidding. She was between babysitters currently, so at least she didn’t have that additional weight to deal with, but the overall atmosphere of the precinct was more than enough to make sure that her trepidation stayed fresh.

“Here.” He tossed a file on her desk, his gruff tone relaying that he thought almost as little of her as she did of him. “Three people over the last week and a half have ended up in the hospital. All of them report extreme vertigo and nausea, as well as memory loss of about half a day. Figure it out.”

Maggie picked up the file, relieved he wasn’t calling her back to his office. That was where he gave the orders from Cadmus, but out here? In the open? Even he wouldn’t risk that.

The relief started to fade as she scanned the first page of the file. “Shouldn’t this go to narcotics?” A cursory glance showed the people had been coming back with strange test results indicative of a foreign substance. It sounded like something the Narcotics Division was much better equipped to handle.

“They took a pass. None of the tests can pinpoint what’s being used or how it’s being introduced into the bloodstream. Unless anyone important,” Maggie cringed internally at that, knowing all too well about all the ‘unimportant’ people the department casually shuffled aside on a regular basis, “is actually affected, or this grows into a larger epidemic, this is weird enough to justify throwing to the Science Division. Do you have a problem with that, Detective?”

“No, sir,” she bowed her head in acceptance, the chill reigniting in her bones at the dark smirk that crossed his lips just before he turned away.

She wished she could fight him, rid the force of Cadmus and all their influence, but all it took was a smile like that, and she found herself right back to where she always was, the inescapability of her situation boxing her in.

 _You helped rescue Cat, though,_ the small voice of resistance spoke up. _You fought back._ It wasn’t the only time she had worked to undermine Cadmus, but it was by far the most direct, and that was the problem, wasn’t it? It hadn’t been some minor infraction whose discovery would only earn her another warning. No, discovery of this would lead to so much more. And while it had given her a brief flash of triumph, the next hours had been filled with panic about what would happen if Cadmus found out, terror that those she loved would be harmed because of her actions.

But for the next few days she probably wouldn’t have to worry. All she had to do was keep to herself, work the case, and remember her place.

Settling back at her desk, Maggie began to go through the file in earnest, spreading the pages out just a bit wider than she normally would to cover as much of the brown surface of her desk as possible. As she read through everything, memorizing what she could, her mind began to spin with the new puzzle and the thoughts of Alex Danvers finally faded into the background.

***

“You can do this, Cat.” She stood riveted to her front door, hand resting on the knob. “One quick turn to the left, that’s all it will take.” It wasn’t, of course, but teaching herself to concentrate on just one step at a time was a technique she had developed over years of dealing with her anxiety – a way of pushing through the blocks when her Lexapro wasn’t quite able to cope. This particular problem, getting out the door by herself, was a new one that had only surfaced in the last few days, but the principle was still the same and at least she could be thankful that thus far it hadn’t become obvious to other people.

The perfected guise of her public persona was what was saving her, so it was only when no one was looking at her that the fear in the back of her mind became powerful enough to disrupt her to this extent. It whispered to her, a voice that sounded exactly like Lillian’s, telling her that if she stepped out of her door, if she got in the back of a car, they would know, and they would come for her again.

“Dammit, Cat!” She stomped her foot. “If Carter gets home from school and finds out that you missed another therapist appointment, he’s going to start worrying again. Now you don’t want that, do you?”

Carter, along with Kara and everyone else, still thought she was doing well, and the reality was not something she wanted to burden them with. They had been so happy, so relieved at how easily she had begun to reclaim herself. So how could she tell them she had been in shock, her mind repressing the full impact of what she had been through? Letting her have only glimpses in nightmares that couldn’t really encompass the days of capture and manipulation.

That facade had had to break at some point, and as the weeks had passed and Cat had relaxed, her guard dropping enough to let something more slip through. And that was all it had taken, one little breeze and her carefully constructed house of cards had come tumbling down.

The trigger had been those two tiny initials. Cat had been leaving her therapy session when she happened to glance down at the open planner on the woman’s desk. She saw her own initials against her appointment, but what had made her stop short was the “L.L.” scribbled in the time slot right after hers. And then the entire world had tipped on its axis.

Cat still didn’t remember how she had gotten outside, but she had found herself hunched behind a tree across the street, eyes burning as she watched the front entrance. There she had stayed until she spotted Lucy Lawless slip off oversized sunglasses and make her way into the building.

That should have been it, the story ending in embarrassing but soon forgotten paranoia, except just the possibility that Lillian Luthor really was working with Cadmus had granted the incident enough power that whatever confidence Cat had had in herself, in how she had been moving past the kidnapping, had been destroyed in those scant few minutes. And it was only getting worse.

Cat couldn’t go anywhere now without feeling like Cadmus were lurking in every shadow, and the idea of going back to that therapist had almost given her a panic attack. She had a new therapist now, or she was supposed to, but she had yet to make it to a single appointment with him. She had told Carter that it was because his voice was annoying over the phone and she was worried that if she saw him in person she would end up scarring him with a verbal tirade. The real reason, however, was that she was afraid that if she did go, it would only be for her mind to invent some other, nonexistent Cadmus connection, that would break her down even more.

“You’re being ridiculous. You are Cat Grant. You just–”

A knock sounded on the other side of the door, the rap on the wood so similar to the tread of military boots down an industrial hallway.

“Ms. Grant?” It was just the doorman, but Cat couldn’t move, couldn’t even verbalize a reply. “I have the package you were expecting, the one you said I could go ahead and bring up? I’m going to leave it outside your door.”

Soft footsteps walked away, and it was only when they were gone that Cat became aware of how fast her heart was beating in her chest, how weak her knees had become.

It took almost four minutes for her to come back to herself enough to finally turn the handle of the door. But she did. It wasn’t so bad when she didn’t actually have to leave, and even through her anxiety she wanted to see.

The door cracked open, just enough for Cat could grab the box and pull it inside, slamming it shut and sliding the lock into place as quickly as she could. Dropping her purse to the ground, she retreated from the door with her prize cradled in her grasp, head bent as she ignored her phone’s chirp reminding her that the car was waiting for her downstairs. Her driver would give up in a few minutes. By now he was used to her not showing up.

Or maybe… Cat paused. She really didn’t want to have to tell Carter that she hadn’t made it past the door again today. Cat didn’t think she could bring herself to face the therapist after all, but someone else… her fingers moved over the seams, breaking through the tape and opening the lid.

Despite the adrenaline still pumping through her system, Cat smiled when she saw the contents. It was perfect, exactly what she had wanted. She looked at the door again, swallowing as her vision narrowed to just that exit. She couldn’t do it, she couldn’t… her grip tightened, the corner of the box cutting painfully into her palm, and she concentrated on that instead.

On shaky legs, Cat walked back over to the door, reclaiming her purse from where it had fallen. The click of the lock opening echoed in the stillness of her house, and Cat rested her hand on the doorknob.

“You can do this,” she reminded herself, closing her eyes to picture her goal. “You can.”

Without opening her eyes, Cat twisted, knuckles of her hand turning white from the strength of her grip, and before she could remember all the reasons to stop, she forced herself over the threshold.

***

“Useless!” Zatanna slammed her fist into the brick wall in the alley, grimacing as the rough surface tore open her skin. The latent spells on her body would heal her in a moment, but if her magic levels weren’t so depleted she wouldn’t even have felt the impact.

“I–I’m sorry… I don’t…” The man cowered as she turned her attention back to him.

Once she had been the type of person who would have felt bad about this – about causing his frightened face and trembling form – but she no longer had room for sentimentality of that kind, her task far too important to allow for such distractions.

“I’m going to ask you one more time.” She leaned in, narrowing her eyes and letting her hand fall to his chest, hovering over his heart in an obvious threat. “Five months ago Supergirl saved you from a mugging. I need you to think for me now, did she say or do anything that would hint at who she is under the cape? Did she take a call and say any names? Did she smell a certain way, like she spends a lot of time somewhere distinctive? Was there _anything_?”

“I d–didn’t notice. Plea–”

Zatanna cut him off with a snarl, just barely resisting slamming her hand into the wall again. This was the fourth person she had talked to, all of whom were so starstruck that all they remembered was Supergirl’s perfect hair and perfect smile and perfect heroic pose.

“Fine.” Closing her eyes, Zatanna took a deep breath to calm herself before she called forth her power.

“Tegrof.” After years of practice, saying words backwards to transform them into spells came naturally to her, but she frowned as the man crumpled to the ground. If she was at full power that wouldn’t happen, her memory spell only taking a few hours from him, but it would be several more days before her power was back up to a more stable level, and until then the magic was unreliable. It attacked her victims with blunt force instead of fine precision, and this latest witness would end up in the hospital along with all the rest.

Reaching down, Zatanna grabbed his collar, dragging him to the mouth of the alley and tossing him at the entrance. She watched him land, and, satisfied that someone would be along shortly to discover him, she stepped back into the shadows to make her way to the abandoned airplane hangar that was currently serving as her home.

She wished she could just go after Supergirl in the light of day, but experience had taught her that was a losing strategy. Kryptonians were susceptible to magic, to a degree, but only externally. There was no spell that could reach inside either their minds or their bodies, and so manipulating them into doing something or stopping their hearts was impossible.

That was why Zatanna had come up with her current approach: figure out Supergirl’s alter ego and attack her when she was surrounded by people, when she couldn’t fight back without revealing her other identity. Admittedly it wasn’t much of a plan, but Zatanna ultimately didn’t care how lacking in grace it was, as long as it gave her what she needed to return to her own Earth and bring about the end of both Supergirls.

Thinking of her Earth, the one she had left behind to come here, Zatanna fought back a pang of longing. Her Earth was the reason her powers were so low, but still, she missed it. Myriad had taken hold three years ago there, and holding off the effects had been a constant, ever present drain on her power. Astra had offered her a device that would block it, but Zatanna had refused, she wasn’t about to rely on some gift when she was perfectly capable of protecting herself on her own.

Not looking where she was going, her foot landed in a puddle. She ignored the cold dampness that clung to her skin when she pulled it out, focusing instead on watching the ripples sooth.

“Wohs em Lrigrepus.” The water cleared, becoming translucent for an instant before colors began to bleed across its surface, blending to show Supergirl stepping in to stop a bank robbery. Reaching with her mind, Zatanna identified the date as last month, and then zeroed in on a woman in her mid-thirties. That was who she would question next.

This would be so much easier if she could just command the water to show her Supergirl’s other self, but Astra had never given her Supergirl’s real name, and Zatanna needed that to locate someone. She had found the man from earlier because his mugger had opened his wallet and discarded the ID, and the woman in question now had her name predominantly displayed on a badge affixed to her lapel. While it was true that Supergirl and her alter ego were arguably the same person, magic was fickle, and when she asked for Supergirl, it never showed her as anything but costumed and in the midst of some spectacular feat. It wouldn’t even let Zatanna keep watching until Supergirl returned to her home, the images fading out as soon as they became too personal.

And so she was reduced to this, to traipsing through back alleys accosting strangers in the hopes that one of them would remember something interesting. So far it had gotten her nowhere, but she would not give up, and someday soon, Supergirl would be hers.

***

Kara turned off the police scanner Snapper had thrown at her an hour ago and looked down at her notepad, reading through the hastily transcribed information. A man had been found unconscious near the mouth of an alley, the report stating it fit a pattern of three other recent incidents. On paper it had all the makings of a decent story – the mystery, the danger – and that was what Kara was aiming for, after all, to get it into print.

Still she hesitated, unsure, and when her phone buzzed, Kara let out a relieved breath at the interruption. That feeling manifested in a smile when she read Cat’s message demanding her presence at Noonan’s. She didn’t have to figure this out now; she hadn’t seen Cat in several days and the absence of the other woman had been weighing on her. Ever since their conversation on Cat’s balcony two weeks ago, things had been different between them. Nothing obvious, but she felt it each time they were together, every word and glance almost electric and on the edge of discovery.

Standing, Kara took a moment to brush the crumbs from her skirt, pulling out a compact mirror to check her image. Cat had seen her in all forms, dressed up for a CatCo gala, worn down and tired after a twelve-hour work day, and smeared in dirt after a Supergirl save, but even so, Kara wanted more. She wanted Cat to look at her and be tempted to bite her lip, to move her eyes over Kara’s body and smirk in just that way that never failed to make her feel noticed.

Cat was already waiting when Kara walked into Noonan’s, and Kara couldn’t help but hold herself back, her heart skipping as Cat lifted a latte to her lips, the long expanse of her neck calling for Kara’s attention. She was stunning. Kara had always thought so, but with every encounter she was confronted with that all over again, her memory never quite able to capture Cat’s true beauty. As it sunk in, that this woman was only a few feet away, was waiting for _her_ , Kara preened and grew lighter at the same time.

These last days had been hard, not seeing Cat at all, but one thing after another had gotten in the way and they hadn’t been able to schedule anything. They had been texting still, but after Cat’s kidnapping Kara couldn’t completely trust that anymore. She only barely restrained herself from showing up at Cat’s apartment every day unannounced to talk to her in person, knowing it would be for her own sake more than for Cat’s. Cat needed Kara to be strong now, needed at least the appearance of Kara believing that everything was alright. She still flew by at night, keeping a respectful distance as she listened to Cat’s heartbeat, but it wasn’t the same.

Not wanting to put if off any more, Kara stepped forward, any doubt about the extra button on her blouse she had hastily undone in the elevator fading as Cat’s eyes hovered there a moment longer than was strictly socially acceptable.

“Kara,” the name came late, Cat’s eyes raising to hers, and although Cat’s initial reaction had been favorable, now her smile was tight. Kara’s muscles began to tense, brows knitting together in concern.

“Cat, are you–”

“If you’re about to ask me if I’m alright, don’t.” The warning was clear, but the tilt to Cat’s head was almost playful, or trying to be. “I have a therapist for that, remember? Well, _had_. I fired him today. You wouldn’t believe the headache his voice was giving me. I think he was doing it on purpose, hoping his clients would leave early of their own volition so he would get paid for the full hour while only doing half the work.”

It didn’t ring quite true, but if Cat didn’t want her to push, she wouldn’t. Not right now, anyway.

“How’s your latte?” she said instead, slipping into the seat across from Cat.

“Cold. I don’t suppose you could…” Cat wiggled her fingers over the coffee.

“They just made it for you, I’m sure it can’t be that bad.” Kara made no move to reach for the cup, and Cat relented with a sigh.

“One thing I’ve come to learn, Kara, is that after you’ve grown used to superpower-heated coffee, everyone else seems subpar in comparison.”

“I think you mean ‘everything.’” Kara felt a blush creep its way onto her cheeks. It was one thing to think about this in the security of her office or at home, but the bravado never quite lasted in person.

“Did I?” Cat’s tone gave nothing away, but her eyes gleamed wickedly. “Well, Freud wasn’t entirely wrong. We all slip now and then.”

Kara ducked her head, knowing her blush was intensifying, and her gaze fell on a silver card case next to Cat’s hand.

“New business cards? Did you decide you wanted to try something new? You’re not… you’re not planning on leaving again, are you?” The easy give and take with Cat was replaced instantly with fear. She had thought Cat was going to stay, to come back to CatCo eventually, but what if…

A moment later a soothing hand landed on Kara’s own. It withdrew almost as quickly – a small squeeze and then it was gone – but Kara’s skin continued to tingle in its wake.

“These are for you, actually.” Cat slid the case across the table.

“M–me?” Kara stared at it, breath catching as she noticed how the elegant design inlaid into the lid came together at one point to discreetly form the crest of her house. To the untrained eye, it would just be an interesting piece of geometry, but to her it was a piece of home.

“Don’t worry, the cards only have ‘Danvers’ on them. I know that symbol doesn’t really mean ‘super,’ but I thought something that reflected all of you would be more appropriate…” Cat watched as Kara slowly moved her hand to trace the mark. “Did I go too far?”

“Wha– No!” Kara jerked back to look up at Cat. “This is… it’s beautiful.”

“Go ahead and open it,” Cat prompted. “Don’t think I haven’t read every one of your articles.”

Kara’s stomach flipped at that. Cat hadn’t mentioned a single of Kara’s pieces since the one on Lar-On, and she had wondered if that was only because Cat had been involved with the investigation. Not that Kara had been particularly upset by that, her articles since having been all about pelicans and minor community disputes, things hardly worthy of Cat’s attention. But to know that Cat had read them all the same? It was… Kara’s toes curled, and Cat’s next words only adding to the sensation. “You’re a real reporter now, Kara. Your business cards should reflect that.”

Kara picked up the case, surprised to find that her hands weren’t shaking. It seemed like they should be, but instead she felt sure, invigorated even, as she pulled back the lid to reveal her name emblazoned on expensive, professional business cards. They were similar to the style Cat had for her own, but different enough that Kara could tell Cat must have put real time and thought into picking out just the right font and spacing for Kara’s tastes.

“Thank you, Cat.” Kara looked up again, meeting Cat’s eyes. She didn’t need to elaborate. There was nothing she could say that would capture what she was feeling, and they both knew it.

“They’re just business cards.” Cat shrugged, but her tone was pleased.

“Cat…”

Cat waved her off. “Don’t you have a story or something you should be working on? I didn’t give you those just so you could sit around and stare at them all day.”

Kara laughed, shaking her head as the moment broke. “Actually I do. I wasn’t– I didn’t know if it was actually worth following up on, but I think I will now.” She still had so much to learn, but Kara’s gut was telling her there was something in the police report.

“Well then, chop chop,” Cat was already pulling out her phone as the last syllable left her tongue, texting her driver to come around for a pickup. Kara nodded. As much as things had been changing between them, emotional vulnerability was still hard on Cat, and Kara understood that for right now she had given as much of herself as she could.

“I’ll see you later, Cat,” and, with a sudden rush of boldness, Kara moved around the table and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. “Thank you again.”

Cat grunted, refusing to look up, but her heart rate spiked at the contact, and as Kara walked away, she could practically feel Cat’s eyes lift behind the safety of her turned back. The gaze she knew so well settled over her, pushing her forward and upwards with every step until she was out of sight.

***

Maggie crouched in the alley, wrinkling her nose against the smell as she looked for anything the CSI team might have missed. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them to do their jobs, at least, not unless they had been specifically ordered by the captain to tamper with evidence, but she had been working the case for a few days already without any real leads and it couldn’t hurt to give the scene some extra attention.

“The bakery across the street has a security camera pointed this way.” The voice came out of nowhere, too chipper and happy in a place like this to be anything but a rookie, and Maggie winced as the tone grated against her nerves.

“I didn’t see any when I walked past,” she spoke dismissively, squinting at a oddly shaped rock and trying to decide if it was a clue or just weird.

“The owner is a little eccentric. He likes to hide the cameras so the other bakers won’t be able to actively avoid them if they come by to steal his ideas.”

“And you would know this how?” Just a rock, she concluded, rolling her neck to work out the kinks as she stood.

“They make the best donuts in National City,” now they sounded almost affronted that Maggie _didn’t_ know this information, and her brow wrinkled in irritation. Still, if it was true, the footage could be more than she had right now. Maggie had spent hours over the last few days scouring the city’s street cameras, but whoever was providing the drugs seemed to have a knack for avoiding them.

“Alright, I’ll check it out.” Maggie finally turned around, wishing as soon as she did that she hadn’t.

“No need, I already picked up the only copy.” Kara Danvers grinned at her, partially-eaten donut in one hand and what was presumably said only copy of the footage in her other. There was something off though, and Kara’s eyes seemed almost… watchful. But then she stuffed the rest of the donut into her mouth, and when Maggie blinked that sharpness was gone, replaced with the image of a bubbly kid reporter who now had powdered sugar smeared across her nose.

It was just a trick of the light, Maggie decided, pushing past the gnawing doubt.

But she still had another problem. Namely, the fact that her nice, unrelated to Cadmus and perfect distraction from Alex Danvers case was in danger of failing to live up to one of those expectations.

“I don’t suppose you’re here to give me the recording, are you?” It was worth a try.

“Nope.” Kara shook her head, holding the disk tighter and reaching into her bag with her now free hand. “If you want to see it, you’ll have to share everything you have with me.”

“I could arrest you for obstruction, you know.” She didn’t especially want to bring Kara back to the precinct though. Dealing with reporters was part of the job, and not even her captain would question Maggie’s interaction with Kara as long as it stayed far away from anything related to Cadmus. But there was no guarantee that Kara wouldn’t ask about Scorcher again, and that could be very, very dangerous.

It would also bring Alex Danvers barreling back into her life as more than just a thought. Maggie had been lucky thus far that no one she worked with had connected the imposing DEO agent from the last joint operation with the more casual one Maggie had played off as an ex-lover, but if Alex started waving her badge around the bullpen they would sure enough. That would lead to questions of what Maggie had been trying to cover up with the obfuscation, why she had been interacting with someone from the DEO in a non-official capacity in the first place, and it would be way more trouble than the personal reasons Maggie had for avoiding the agent.

Kara ignored her threat, hand emerging from her purse with a shiny metal card case.

“Kara, I already have your contact information,” Maggie said, but she took the card anyway.

“That’s true, but this is my _professional_ information this time. See what it says on the card? I’m a reporter, with or without Cat Grant to back me up, and the people have a right to know what’s going on.”

“And that’s supposed to sway me?” Kara was smiling again, no, _beaming_ now, as Maggie read the card, and Maggie really wished she would stop. Kara was too bright and naïve to be around anything like this, let alone around Maggie herself, and her smile was only a further reminder of that.

“It is.” Kara folded her arms across her chest.

“Kara…” she started, but Kara cut her off before she could form another protest.

“That’s the first ‘Kara Danvers: Reporter’ card I’ve ever passed out, did you know that? I suggest you give in… unless you want to take responsibility for the psychological damage your rejection of my newfound confidence would cause?”

Maggie’s heart sank. What Kara was asking for went beyond what Maggie wanted to give, but she didn’t see another way to resolve this easily. So an hour, Maggie could do that. An hour to watch the video, give Kara a quote, and send her on her way.

“I… guess we could work something out.”

“Great!” Somehow the smile widened, and in some small corner of Maggie’s mind, the tiny part of herself that wasn’t fully resigned to her situation, Maggie felt the stirrings of a deeper fondness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GIVE IT UP FOR THE EDITORS, all of whom have improved every episode!  
> supercattuccino ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/krystalgoderitch) | [tumblr](http://supercattuccino.tumblr.com/ask)),  
> @spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), @Revolos55 ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Revolos55/pseuds/Revolos55) | [tumblr](http://saunteringvaguelydownwards.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask)) for their beta work on all episodes so far!


	3. Act II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously on Supergirl Virtual Season… Kara was pretty happy about Cat’s thoughtful gift.

A KISS ON THE CHEEK YOU SAY? Yeah, @supergaysupercat has captured the moment perfectly from Act 1. Please love on it in the comments or in that there [Tumblr ask box](http://supergaysupercat.tumblr.com/ask).


	4. Act II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Maggie and Kara’s investigation reveals the key connection between the victims, Kara turns to Cat for shelter and comfort as she struggles with her indirect role in the attacks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t you just love the effect on this gif by @xy0009? ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))

“So… this is where I live.” Kara finished unlocking the door and led Maggie into her apartment.

In the back of her mind, she could almost hear Alex yelling at her about getting close to a detective, especially one whose full associations were still unknown, but Kara could be sneaky when she wanted to be. Besides, it had been a while since Maggie had last been around Supergirl up close so the danger of being recognized was _probably_ past.

Her initial reaction to seeing Maggie in that alley had been mixed. Kara honestly wanted to believe she wasn’t involved with anything shady. Maggie had helped them save Cat, after all, but then she had refused to share her source. Maggie had also been amiable enough during the Lar-On situation, but she’d only given them information any reasonable cop would have shared if they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves for withholding.

This time was going to be different though. Kara had seen how Alex looked at Maggie, how her eyes would light up whenever Maggie was mentioned, and how her shoulders would stiffen if that mention wasn’t positive. After all the years that Alex had been protecting Kara, it was her turn to step up as a sister.

So this time Kara wasn’t going to just accept a few minutes of insight into a case. No, she was going to push for more, to make Maggie work with her as a partner and get to the bottom of whatever was going on with the woman. This time Kara was going to make it personal, because Alex deserved everything, and for once Kara was in a position to provide.

Maggie had put up less of a fight about coming to her apartment than Kara had originally anticipated, although Kara didn’t know how to interpret that. It suggested that Maggie didn’t want Kara hanging around the precinct, but that could just be to keep Maggie’s boss from eyeing her up again, rather than something more sinister.

“Do you want something to eat before we start?” Kara asked, wanting to put Maggie at ease. Food always did that for Kara, but when Maggie blinked at her, taken aback, Kara realized it may not have been the brightest idea, considering the whole ‘pretending to be human’ thing.

“You stopped in the bakery again before we left and that box of donuts is completely empty. You can’t still be hungry.”

“You had some too,” Kara pointed out, hoping for the cover.

“I had _one_ , and I know for a fact there were five more in there.”

“There were not!” Technically there had been six.

“Just get the video set up, Kara. I don’t want this to take all day.”

Kara cast a longing glance at the drawer with the take-out menus, but then she gathered herself together and waved Maggie over to the sofa.

“So, while I’m getting this ready, why don’t you tell me about the case?” She pulled out the last DVD that had been in the player, a holdover from sisters’ night, and started to search around for the box.

“I think we should watch the video first. _If_ there is anything useful on it, then I’ll give you something you can use to write your story.”

Kara opened her mouth to argue, to tell Maggie she had every intention of doing more than just returning to her office to write, but she managed to hold it in at the last moment. It would be easier to convince Maggie to let her help after Maggie had given her enough that Kara could more seriously threaten to keep investigating on her own if she didn’t.

“Alright.” Kara found the box, packing the old DVD away and pushing the new one into the drive before moving to the sofa and treating Maggie to her most authoritative expression, exactly as Cat had done to her on so many occasions. “But I’m trusting you, Maggie. No shenanigans, you hear me?” Ok, so maybe not _exactly_ like Cat, but she had tried.

To her credit, Maggie kept her face composed as she nodded, but when Kara narrowed her eyes for emphasis, Maggie’s cool finally began to crack and she rolled her eyes. “Yes, Kara. You have me quaking in my boots, just play it already.”

Kara grabbed the remote, fiddling with it to get the fast-forward setting where she wanted, and they settled back to watch, starting from a few hours prior to when the man’s unconscious body had been discovered.

“That’s him,” Maggie broke the silence some time later, picking up the remote and slowing the footage to regular speed.

They both leaned forward for a better view as the man started to walk past the alley, only to be stopped short when a hand reached out and yanked him inside. There was nothing else for about five minutes, and then his unconscious body was tossed towards the entrance. The camera angle just missed whoever had thrown him, and Maggie turned off the recording after another minute.

“So, what are you thinking?” Kara eased her hand out of a fist, angry at herself for getting caught up in other matters. At first she had been excited about the investigative aspect of the case, and when she had discovered Maggie was the detective involved, she had let her priorities shift to focus on the other woman. It wasn’t until she had seen the man getting pulled into the alley that she had remembered this wasn’t just a story, or an opportunity, and that people were getting hurt.

“I’m thinking that this is more dangerous than I originally thought. I’ll give you enough to start writing your article because that was the deal, but you have to agree not to publish it until after I’ve arrested the perp. I don’t want you drawing attention to yourself. Do you understand me?” If Kara hadn’t been Cat’s assistant for two years, she might have folded under the new note of command. But she _had_ been Cat’s assistant, and a little thing like that wasn’t going to stop her. Still, she couldn’t tip her hand yet. She needed Maggie to give her the information first.

“I won’t publish until after the case is over.” Kara diverted her eyes in token acceptance, leaving out the part where it had never been her intention to publish until after she had helped Maggie solve the case anyway, and also skipping over making any promises not to draw attention.

Thankfully, it was enough. Not many people ever bothered to look past the Kara Danvers persona they saw on the outside, and Maggie was no exception. She had been dismissive of Kara when first they had met, the impression she had formed then clearly the one that still resonated with her, even after Kara had gotten her way in the alley.

“Thank you,” Maggie said, visibly relaxing now that Kara had appeared to acquiesce. “This video actually does a lot to help me move forward on the case. It proves that there’s someone going around attacking people.”

Kara frowned. Hadn’t that been obvious? She had assumed when the people had been found unconscious it was a serial violent mugger or something.

“Up until this point, everything has been very inconclusive, and I couldn’t even say for sure whether the people, or victims, rather, were taking the drugs voluntarily or not.”

“Drugs?” The earlier donuts felt heavy in Kara’s stomach, turning over as she considered the implications.

“There’s not more than a scratch on any of them, and we know something’s been introduced into their systems because their blood work comes back strange. Whatever it is, it’s not something I’ve ever seen before, nor the doctors, for that matter. It’s just… it’s almost like it’s not a physical chemical that’s doing it, but beyond that it’s a mystery. The main side effect, however, is that the first three victims lost their memories from the few hours before and including the attack. I expect when the latest victim wakes up it will be much the same.” Maggie stood to leave. “I’ll email you a few files on the blood work, and a full summary, but then–”

“No!” The dismissal had Kara jerking, rising to her feet as well. She hadn’t meant to be so abrupt, but the plans for a logical, thought out approach to talking Maggie around had gone out the window the moment Maggie revealed what had been done to these people.

“Kara,” Maggie sighed, sounding like she was talking to a misbehaving child. “You promi–”

“I promised not to release the article until after the case was solved. That’s all. And I won’t, but I’m not just going to let it rest, either. I want in.”

“No, you said…” Maggie’s eyes grew wide as she realized Kara was right, and she took a step back, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. “I can’t just let some junior reporter work it with me. This is too dangerous, you have to see that.”

“I’m tougher than you think!” Kara drew herself up to her full height, not about to let Maggie talk her down. “Alex has been teaching me some moves. You’ve seen her fight.” Maggie’s face flushed at the mention of Alex, but it was gone in an instant, eclipsed by anger. “Do you really think she wouldn’t make sure I knew how to take care of myself?”

“But how would she feel if you went charging into something and got yourself hurt? Hmm, Kara? God, if anything happened to you because I… because of…” Maggie looked pained now, though still upset. “I doubt you’ve ever taken a single drug in your entire life. How would you feel if a perp like this snuck up on you and–”

“Don’t say that.” Kara’s voice was quiet as she cut Maggie off, steely in sharp contrast to the fervent emotion of just seconds before.

“Kara, what…?” Maggie stopped, taking in Kara’s clenched jaw and cold eyes.

“I don’t pretend to know you, Detective. But you don’t know me, either. You don’t know what I’ve been through. Before you make assumptions like that, you should maybe consider that Alex had a very good reason to teach me how to fight.”

“I… yes. You’re right. I’m sorry.” Maggie’s voice was softer now, her eyes moving over Kara with new focus. “But even so, pleas–”

“You can’t stop me. You gave me enough that I know where to start. If you don’t let me work with you, I’ll do it on my own.”

“You…” Maggie sat back down heavily, her arms shifting from her chest to her stomach protectively. “I really won’t be able to stop you, will I?”

“No, you won’t.” Kara joined her back on the sofa. “This isn’t something that should happen to anyone, being forced to take a drug they don’t want. And I…” She reached blindly to the side for the pillow she knew would be there, feeling a little better as soon as it was on her lap. Her fingers curled around it, but even that wasn’t strong enough to drive back the onslaught of memories. She would be having nightmares tonight, flashes of who she had been under red kryptonite, of hurting Alex, hurting Cat. She remembered it all in excruciating detail, every moment of being trapped behind her own eyes, unable to do anything but watch and scream as her body acted without her will. “I’m going to be looking into this one way or another. I’d rather do it with you, but I don’t have to.” She squeezed the pillow tighter, the familiar feel of the fabric steadying her.

“This isn’t how I saw this going,” Maggie admitted, shaking her head.

“When are things ever?”

Maggie sighed again, this time in defeat. But that wasn’t how Kara wanted to leave off. She still needed Maggie to open up to her.

“You know, that bakery isn’t the only one with a hidden camera.” Kara allowed her posture to slump, a smile to slip back across her face. “The bakers of National City have a pretty intense rivalry. They’re all a little fanatical about their work, and when one of them gets an idea like that, none of them want to be left behind. If any of the other attacks happened near one of those places, I can get the recording.”

“And I can’t? Now that I know to ask?” Maggie was trying as well, the question hinting at playful, but Kara could still see the strain in Maggie’s eyes.

“All you have is my word, and trust me, not many of them would willingly reveal or admit to their cameras. They’ll give them to me, though. They like me.”

“You expect me to believe that you are a patron of every bakery in National City?” And there it was, Maggie’s arms loosening their hold around her middle, a small uptick of her lips.

“Do you really want to investigate my eating habits? Or do you want to get to work?”

“Fine, but since I’m agreeing to work with you, that has to go both ways. If I find out that you’ve gone anywhere or questioned anyone on your own, I’m telling your sister, agreed?”

“Agreed.” The pressure in Kara’s chest eased. As much as the particulars of this case were not what she had been expecting, it helped, knowing that she could do something about it.

“National City does seem to have an overabundance of bakeries,” Maggie offered, and Kara didn’t think she should mention that the numbers had been increasing ever since she had moved to the city. “Whenever you start to feel hungry again, we’ll head out to recheck the locations.” It was accompanied by a nudge, a gesture which almost seemed to surprise Maggie even as she had been the one to make it, and Kara’s smile turned more genuine. She had every intention of watching Maggie for some sign of an ulterior motive, but if the only thing she succeeded in uncovering more of was _this_ version of Maggie, the one that was almost friendly, then she would count the endeavour as a win.

“I’m _always_ hungry, Maggie, especially when someone else is buying. Police get to charge expenses, don’t they?” Screw cutting back on food to protect her identity. If she hadn’t blown it with the outburst earlier, she didn’t think a few extra treats would make a difference. Besides, it was for the case. That had to count for something.

***

“I see you still haven’t managed to shake your new pet.” M’gann kept her face straight as Maggie slumped onto the barstool in front of her, a groan escaping her lips.

“She’s relentless, M’gann. Her lead with the hidden cameras panned out and we actually got a picture of the perp. And now Kara has us running all over the city, waving it around and interrogating everyone in our path.”

“ _Kara_ has you running around? Don’t tell me she’s taken charge away from you, oh Great and Imposing Detective Sawyer.” The look M’gann received in response was pitiable.

“She walked right up to five members of a gang before I could stop her, huge men with that ‘approach me and die’ attitude going on. I thought we were done for. I was saying my goodbyes and hoping they would leave enough behind to identify the bodies, but within thirty seconds they were all grinning at her and exchanging cooking tips. I now know more about making the perfect souffle than I ever cared to. And then of course, that reminded her she was hungry _again_. I swear, she’s going to give me an ulcer.”

M’gann uncapped a beer and handed it over. “This one’s on the house; it looks like you need it.”

Maggie shot her a grateful smile before taking a long drag. “On the house is the only thing I can afford right now. I think Kara may have some sort of alien tapeworm inside her that she’s nurturing to take over the world someday. When I’m not chasing after her, I’m catching up just as a vendor presents the bill for her latest snack, and somehow I always end up agreeing to pay.”

“She’s good for you.” M’gann patted Maggie’s arm, half sympathetic, half amused. Maggie would be feeling guilty about actually _enjoying_ spending time with Kara rather than only being in it to keep Kara from further trouble, but it was nice to see her like this, a subtle grin breaking through the apparent dejection.

“If you tell her that, I’ll arrest you for character defamation,” Maggie warned with a mock glare, but then she grew serious. “There’s more to her though, M’gann. I… Another person got attacked yesterday. She didn’t get as sick as the others, and going back we realized there’s been a steady downtick in the side effects of everything but the memory loss. We now think the goal is to perfect the drug until memory is the only thing affected. I should be concentrating on how this information helps us, but I can’t stop picturing Kara’s face when we heard that someone else had gotten hurt. We knew it was coming, given the pattern, but I think she honestly believed we would solve this before anyone else…” Maggie shook her head.

“She cares,” M’gann supplied, turning slightly to gesture at another member of the staff. The man raised a hand to acknowledge her and then disappeared off to the kitchen to put in the order. “And that’s getting to you because you do too, and you don’t like the idea that anything about this case has the potential to harm her.”

Maggie stared into her beer morosely, not bothering to argue the point, and M’gann grasped at the opportunity to push the boundaries.

“Have you thought about asking her for help? She knows some powerful people. Maybe she can–”

“No!” Maggie jerked back in her chair. “I won’t…” She sighed, settling back and shooting M’gann an apologetic look. “It’s one thing to let her help me on this case, but there’s a big difference between giving in to that, and allowing her near any of the other things the NCPD is involved in. Maybe I did underestimate her originally, but if it goes wrong, it’s not just me that will get hurt. It will be my aunt, and Kara, and maybe even you.”

“What makes you think she doesn’t suspect you already?” M’gann prompted. “Wouldn’t it be better to come forward on your own terms than wait for her to figure it out?”

“I…”

“You _do_ think she suspects, don’t you?”

“I think… I think I just don’t know.” Maggie started picking at the logo on the bottle, tearing it off between her fingers. “Sometimes she gets this look when she thinks I’m not paying attention, and it’s like… in those moments I’m so _sure_ she can see right through me. She hasn’t asked any leading questions, or tried to get me to meet her at the precinct, but I get the impression she’s just waiting for me to slip up on my own. But then… then it’s just gone, and I can’t be sure if it was real or not.”

M’gann didn’t have a response to that. If she revealed that those looks _were_ real, that Kara had far more knowledge of Cadmus and aliens and the DEO than Maggie knew, Maggie would panic and cut off all ties regardless of Kara’s threats to investigate without her. And that meant Kara would probably come down on the side of her suspicions, the days she and Maggie had spent together overshadowed by the harsh dismissal.

The bang of the door drew M’gann’s attention, and a weary looking Alex Danvers entered the bar. She had been coming here more and more often, usually when her ‘superfriends’ forced her to take a break. Normally M’gann was a little apprehensive of her visits, always anticipating that a certain Green Martian might come by to check on her, but right now it was perfect timing. Kara wasn’t the only one who could save Maggie, and of the two sisters, Alex was also the more likely to inspire Maggie to trust her in return. Enough that, eventually, Maggie might come forward on her own.

“It sounds like you might be overthinking this, and in reality you’re just worried that hanging around Kara will mean you’ll have to face dark and brooding Danvers again. Have you seen what that woman can do with a leather jacket?”

Maggie spluttered, her face growing dangerously red. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Oh really?” She tilted her head to indicate the space behind Maggie, and Maggie spun around so fast M’gann was surprised she didn’t give herself nerve damage.

“Can I buy you another drink, Detective?” Alex asked, lines on her face easing as she made her way over to them. “My sister would rather have sweets than money and she tends to forget that other people like to be a little more pragmatic with how they spend their cash. After four days with her, it’s the least I can do.”

The server M’gann had signaled earlier returned, placing the bowl of vegan ice cream in front of Maggie with a flourish and a cheeky grin.

“Or maybe you share my sister’s sentiments?” Alex raised an eyebrow, and M’gann stifled a laugh.

“I… it’s… you know what?” Maggie drew herself up, grabbing the ice cream and pulling it towards her possessively. This was good, it was what M’gann had hoped for when Alex had walked in, her presence drawing Maggie in in person when from a distance she kept trying to run away. “No ice cream for you, Agent. But I will take that drink, and you better keep them coming.”

“As you wish.” Alex patted Maggie’s arm, and M’gann didn’t miss the way they both flushed at the contact. A flicker of something crossed Maggie’s face, an awareness that she shouldn’t be doing this, but when Alex’s hand lingered, Maggie couldn’t seem to help herself, leaning into the touch.

“Just don’t drink too much, Detective,” Alex continued. “Knowing Kara, she’ll be back in full swing tomorrow and if you’re too hungover to properly keep an eye on her… well, let’s just say you’ll finally figure out what a DEO black site looks like.” M’gann rolled her eyes at Alex, who shrugged back, the fact that Kara was Supergirl and could take care of herself remaining between them.

M’gann was passing them fresh drinks when a flash of color by the door caused her heart to speed up. It was just another green alien though, one of many who shared that hue, and she tried to tell herself that the only emotion she was feeling was relief, not disappointment. It wasn’t very convincing.

She didn’t want to see him again, not really, but every time she did some part of her whispered that it wasn’t over. One had survived, and maybe she hadn’t saved him, maybe she had failed to save any of them, but his existence was proof that there was hope. And maybe, _maybe_ , it was even proof that someday, she could be forgiven for what she was.

***

“Maggie!” It was too loud and too early in the morning, but perhaps if Maggie just slipped off the park bench and found a nice tree to huddle under, Kara would go away.

Her resolve to distance herself from Alex had cracked the moment she had seen her again in person, and that one drink had turned into far too many. Her head was still spinning and she had the vague recollection that Alex had utterly destroyed her in pool, along with promises of a rematch made amidst blushing and giggling.

“I brought coffee and scones.” Kara waved a bag under Maggie’s nose, trying to tempt her to look up. “Well… scone now. I got hungry on the way here. Actually…”

The bag started to withdraw and Maggie snatched it before Kara could claim the last scone for herself.

“Don’t you dare. I know you probably ate at least three–”

“Four,” Kara corrected, but she had the grace to look sheepish. It was times like these that Maggie’s worries about Kara’s suspicions seemed farfetched, but she was still on a contact high from her not-really-a-date with Alex, and she didn’t expect that to last.

She knew all too soon the reasons she had for wanting to stay away from Alex would come crashing back around her, and when they did she would once again begin to see flashes of that wary question in Kara’s eyes. But they hadn’t come back yet, and they wouldn’t for a few more hours, if she was lucky. So she could berate herself later, but for the moment… for the moment she was just going to exist.

“You Danvers sisters, you’re going to be the death of me,” she grumbled, closing her eyes and moaning slightly as the first bite of the lemon meringue hit her tongue.

“Alex says we should come with a warning.” Maggie opened her eyes just as Kara attempted an overly serious nod, lasting all of two seconds before her face split back into a smile.

Sighing, Maggie shook her head, waving at the bench next to her. “I know you wanted to follow up on that report of a possible sighting of the perp near the airport, but I need another half hour to recover first.”

“About that.” The smile shifted on Kara’s face, now almost forced, and Maggie paused, the scone halfway to her mouth. The expression was so wrong juxtaposed against Kara’s yellow dress and young face. “I was looking over the pictures of the victims this morning, and I think I may have noticed a connection.”

Kara started digging through her bag, pulling out her wallet, along with a small stuffed plushie of Streaky the Supercat that Maggie recognized from a popular web comic, a pair of glasses that obviously weren’t hers, and random other items, setting them on the bench between them. Finally, she found the notepad she was searching for, but she delayed, shoving the assorted items away as her smile grew more and more fixed.

“Kara,” Maggie reached out, stilling Kara’s hands and drawing her attention back to her.

“It’s probably nothing, I mean, it’s not really much of a connection. I doubt–”

“Just tell me, Kara. We won’t know if it could be important until you do.”

“Right, sorry,” Kara fumbled, but she calmed enough to find the right page in her notes. “Our first victim, Mr. Chase, he was saved from being hit by a speeding car by Supergirl last year. The second victim, Ms. Osbourne, she was trapped in a collapsed building and Supergirl pulled her out. The third…” Kara kept listing off names and their connection to Supergirl while Maggie stayed quiet, her mind churning.

Supergirl had saved a lot of people in this city. Hell, she had saved the entire world, but all of these people had seen her up close. It wasn’t impossible that it was just a coincidence, but it was unlikely.

First though, Maggie had another question.

“I don’t have incident reports on all those cases, Kara, so how did you find out about all the saves? You weren’t going back and interviewing people without me, were you?”

“What? No! I…” Kara paused, shoving her glasses more securely up her nose and not quite meeting Maggie’s eyes. “Well, when I said I was looking at the photos this morning, what I meant was I was having breakfast with Alex and Supergirl.” Maggie suppressed an irrational flash of jealousy as she wondered just why Alex and Supergirl were together in the morning. Last night at the bar Alex had seemed so… had she left after having her fun with Maggie to fall into Supergirl’s arms?

But now wasn’t the time for that, and Maggie forced herself to focus on Kara.

“The photos were out,” Kara continued, “and Supergirl recognized the last victim as one who was at a recent bank robbery. I asked her to take a closer look at the others and she began to remember them as well, but they were all from older saves so they didn’t stand out until she noticed the woman. Do you think it might be something after all?”

“Maybe,” Maggie mused.

“Supergirl’s going to feel terrible if she’s the reason all of these people were attacked. If it’s her fau–”

“No.” Maggie’s denial was firm. “Kara, bad things happen. Even if Supergirl is the connection, it’s not her fault. It’s the fault of whoever is doing this to people. No one else.”

It seemed strange, how personally Kara was taking this. Something else occurred to her, making Kara’s words from earlier take on new meaning. What if Supergirl had been there for Kara, not Alex? What if the reason Alex and Supergirl were so close in the field was because Supergirl and Kara… but what about Cat Grant? Maggie had assumed that Kara had been pining after her. Or maybe…

She cut off that line of thought at the bud. Cat Grant was exactly the sort of woman Maggie could see getting a thrill from taking a superhero and her former assistant to bed at the same time, and Maggie _really_ didn’t want to know if Kara was engaging in those sort of activities with the two most powerful people in National City behind closed doors.

“But Maggie–”

“It is not Supergirl’s fault. Do you understand me, Kara?” She pressed again, and was relieved a moment later when Kara nodded, smile small but more real. Yes, whether or not Little Danvers was having kinky threesome sex was none of her business. Solving crime, that was her business, and it was all she wanted to think about now.

***

Zatanna stood in her improvised shower, the conjured water rolling over her as she closed her eyes and tilted her face upwards. She had already been here for forty minutes, but the water would never get cold no matter how long she stayed under it. It was the one good thing about magical showers, and one that she had been making frequent use of as the days passed on this Earth.

Not that it made much of a difference.

Because how could she feel clean when she had fled her own world? Left others to deal with Supergirl in her stead? She tried to brush it aside, reminding herself that emotions had no place here and that she was going to go back eventually. It also wasn’t like there was anyone specific she cared about anyway, not since… Sighing, Zatanna waved her hand, ending the spray.

It had been two weeks and five days on this Earth and she was getting impatient. But at least her power was back to a more manageable strength now, meaning she could speed up her inquiries and no one else would end up in the hospital. She could also start attacking at night as she didn’t have to ensure immediate medical attention, so her future victims wouldn’t even realize what had happened.

“Maybe it’s time,” she mused, speaking out loud more to hear something in the silence than anything else. There was one person she was aware of who might know the answer to Supergirl’s identity. Prior to this, an attack on Cat Grant would have drawn too much notice, but now…

“Wohs em Tac Tnarg,” she said, drying herself before pulling on her clothes as the residual shower water fill with color. It was late and she expected to see the woman safely in her bed, only she wasn’t, and Zatanna froze, watching as Supergirl descended from the sky to land on Cat’s balcony.

It could be nothing. Cat Grant and Supergirl had had plenty of contact before, so there was no reason to think that just because of the hour there was anything more to this than… the scene continued to unfold and she realized with growing horror that the two of them were much further along in their relationship than she had originally supposed.

Zatanna began moving before she had a fully formed plan, memories of her own world burning in her mind. Going in now wasn’t how she had wanted to play this, but if Supergirl had already reached this stage, she didn’t have any other choice.

***

Cat’s eyes flew open instantly when her phone buzzed on her bedside table, and she debated whether to check it. It was past midnight and she could easily leave it for the morning, but the knowledge that tomorrow she would have to make herself leave the apartment again was only serving to amplify the intensity of her nightmares, so it wasn’t like she was getting any sleep anyway.

She still hadn’t found another new therapist but she had been meeting with Kara regularly, the call of those blue eyes, the promise of seeing that smile, giving her the strength to step outside. The strength came from something else as well, from how _safe_ Kara made her feel.

If she was with Kara, nothing could hurt her, and if Kara was expecting her to show up for a scheduled lunch or post-work drink, Cat wouldn’t be able to go missing for more than a few minutes before Kara would start hunting her down. Then there was the fact that Kara’s presence also served to prove to Cat that she was still sane. Each time she looked at Kara and felt that familiar softness, that belief, it became just that much easier to accept that Cadmus really had failed to alter her mind.

Plus, it was fun. Flirting with Kara had become a game. Nothing had happened yet – she still didn’t trust herself completely – but there was possibility, inevitability, and it was a perfect distraction from her anxiety. And when Kara blushed… Cat bit her lip, picturing that little squirm, how Kara would look at Cat like she was waiting for her to pounce. In those moments Cat felt powerful again, felt almost like the woman she had been before.

That didn’t mean that she didn’t spend her nights thinking about her apartment door though, about what might be on the other side.

Cat’s phone buzzed again and she rolled onto her side, pulling the device towards her. She smiled when she saw Kara’s name, wondering if she was in her own bed, hair tousled and sheets kicked aside to expose her legs under tiny sleep shorts. Maybe Kara’s shirt had even ridden up a bit, a single hand trailing across toned abs.

Unlocking her phone the smile fell away, and Cat’s stomach turned as she read the two messages. Kara’s initial text asked if Cat was awake, and her next requested to come over, both sent in such quick succession that it could only mean something was wrong. Otherwise Kara would have waited for a response to the first before sending the second, not wanting to impose herself or reveal her desperation.

Cat typed out an affirmative and pulled herself from the bed, covering her silk nightgown with a soft robe. She would have preferred to greet Kara with nothing less than perfection, but when it came down to it, she didn’t care if Kara saw her like this. It wouldn’t be the first time, after all, and right now there were more pressing concerns.

Supergirl touched down just as Cat walked onto the balcony, but before she could speak, Kara held up her hand.

“Wait, just a moment. Please.” She spun in place, her boots and cape replaced by casual jeans and a cardigan, the supersuit folded neatly on a chair to the side. “I hope you don’t mind,” Kara gestured at herself. “I didn’t want to be _her_ for this. I just… I wanted to be me with you, to not hide behind the costume.”

Cat stepped forward, working to keep her face neutral. Kara hadn’t put on glasses or bothered to tie up her hair, and Cat had the distinct impression that if this wasn’t quite Supergirl, it wasn’t strictly Kara Danvers, either. Cat’s heart began to beat faster. This was too much, too soon, and Cat wasn’t… but she wanted it, she wanted this.

“What’s wrong?”

“I–I haven’t been sleeping well recently.” Cat nodded. Kara hadn’t directly told her, but Cat had guessed as much, seeing the way Kara would become uneasy when the telling Cat about certain aspects of the story she was working on. “I thought I was handling it, but then today… Maggie and I had a break in the case. We figured out that all of those people were targeted because Supergirl saved them. They were all… it’s my fault.”

“Oh, Kara.” Cat reached out her hand, but before she could make contact Kara shrank away, pulling in on herself and looking down.

“They were all hurt because of me. I should have saved them this time as well, but instead…” she gave a watery chuckle. “Maggie tried to tell me it wasn’t Supergirl’s fault. That it was the fault of the perpetrator, but I just…”

“That wasn’t enough.” Cat settled herself on the sofa, leaving enough room for Kara to sit comfortably without forcing proximity, and after a moment Kara joined her.

Maggie was right, of course. It wasn’t Kara’s fault, but that wouldn’t matter when people were still getting attacked. Cat knew that well enough. Just because there were points when she was feeling more secure in herself now, that didn’t mean the doubts were gone, that the fear that she was going to start hurting people had been quelled. And even if technically it wouldn’t be her fault – it would be the fault of Cadmus – a simple qualifier like that could never be enough.

“No, it wasn’t. And she doesn’t really understand, anyway.” That was another thing Cat could sympathize with, how hard it was to take comfort from someone who only knew part of the story. Even if Cat had had a therapist right now, there were still things that she wouldn’t be able to say. She was allowed to talk about the kidnapping, about Cadmus, but not about the DEO, and her mentions of Kara were limited to her growing feelings for her former assistant, not the full scope of what Kara was. It made things… Kara was the only one she really trusted who knew all that she had been through. Kara was _her_ comfort, more than anyone else, and it gave her back a little bit more of herself to know that she was someone who could be that comfort for Kara in return.

“I know I shouldn’t be bothering you with this, Cat. I wanted to be strong for you, so you wouldn’t have to worry. So you could focus on feeling better, but…”

“Shhh, Kara.” Cat reached out slowly, waiting to see if she would move away again, and when she didn’t, Cat let her hand brush across Kara’s cheek. “Just being with you makes me feel better. You don’t need to worry about that. I never want you to hold something back from me because you think you should.”

 _And yet you’re afraid to go outside unless it’s just to your balcony._ The cruel taunt reverberated in Cat’s mind. _You’re lying to yourself if you think you are in any position to offer her support. How long before Kara realizes how weak you are and stops coming to you because she thinks you need all your strength for yourself?_

No, Cat refused to give in to that. Kara needed her now, and that was all that mattered. “Do you know you’ve always been been a hero to me? Ever since you walked into my office at 10:15 and weren’t afraid, ever since you had the audacity to _look_ at me, and see Cat, not the Queen of All Media? That’s what I want for you as well. I want to learn how to be your hero, how to see all of you, to make you feel free, just like you do for me.”

Kara’s eyes had darkened as Cat spoke, but Cat could no more hold back her words than she could stop what happened next. Screw her fear, screw whatever doubts she had. Right here, in this moment, nothing existed outside of Cat Grant and Kara–

“Zor-El.” The way Kara spoke it was almost reverent.

“I’m sorry?” Cat frowned, knowing this was important, just not why.

“My real name. Kara Zor-El.” And now there was a slight lilt on her first name, an accent Cat had never heard before. It was beautiful. “It’s who I am when I’m this. When I’m… me.”

Cat hadn’t asked the projection of Kara’s mom, wanting this information to come from Kara herself when she was ready, but even if she had, she didn’t think she would have heard it spoken in this way. The hologram had been programed with an American accent, the same one Kara had clung to for so long, but now even that last pretense had dropped away.

“Kara Zor-El.” Cat did her best to copy the sounds, watching in wonder as Kara shivered under her hand, as her face flushed in the pale moonlight.

It was more than Cat could resist.

She was leaning in before she registered the shift consciously, pressing forward until there was only a whisper of a breath between them. And then it was Kara who was closing the distance, a soft whine registering in the back of her throat when they finally connected. It filled Cat, sinking into all the deep crevices Cadmus had left behind, and when Kara’s lips fell open at the first gentle request of Cat’s tongue, the warmth spread further, baring new futures and possibilities that until now had only been a dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GIVE IT UP FOR THE EDITORS, all of whom have improved every episode!  
> supercattuccino ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/krystalgoderitch) | [tumblr](http://supercattuccino.tumblr.com/ask)),  
> @spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), @Revolos55 ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Revolos55/pseuds/Revolos55) | [tumblr](http://saunteringvaguelydownwards.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask)) for their beta work on all episodes so far!


	5. Act III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously on Supergirl Virtual Season… MORE KISSING. And not just on the cheek.

As Cat and Kara get closer @pinkrabbitpro has brought the end of Act 2 to life for us. Please love on it in the comments or in that there [Tumblr ask box](http://pinkrabbitpro.tumblr.com/ask). 


	6. Act III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zatanna’s discovery of Supergirl pulls the DEO into the investigation, but with little to go on aside from the fact that Kara was the target all along, tensions run high and the growing relationship between Alex and Maggie begins to fracture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t you just love the effect on this gif by @xy0009? ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))

“Cat,” Kara broke away from the kiss, needing a moment to make sure this was real. She ran the tips of her fingers over Cat’s cheek, brushing gently down the side of her neck until she could press her palm flat against Cat’s chest to feel the beat of her heart.

“I’m here, Kara,” Cat assured, pronouncing her name with its proper inflection once again. Kara’s eyelids started to slip closed in response, but she struggled to keep them open, not wanting to limit herself by cutting off even one sensation when she had all of Cat in front of her like this now.

All of Cat _with_ her now, the taste of her still on Kara’s lips, the pressure of her touch on Kara’s skin, and even the scent of her engulfing everything around. Kara felt dizzy, fantasies and wishful thinking falling away as the present became all consuming; the sight of Cat staring at her so unguardedly too precious to miss for even a second.

Cat was smiling, making no effort to hide the desire in her eyes, or how it was softened by the care that transformed her words from a statement into a promise. _I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, I won’t leave you alone._

It took what was left of Kara’s breath away, and Cat’s smile grew as she watched Kara come to terms with what this meant.

And it meant everything, but still, Kara wanted more. More of Cat’s hand tugging at her collar to bring her close, more of the small sighs and quiet gasps she had managed to draw forth, more of… more of _Cat_ , pulling Kara into her orbit and driving back the aches and fears and–

“Ezeerf!”

It was over in an instant, the seclusion and potential of the night ripped back as something _not-_ Cat wrapped around Kara, holding her in place.

Alarm raced through her as she saw that Cat was frozen as well, helpless as someone alighted on the balcony just out of view. Kara strained against the invisible bonds until slowly, too slowly, they began to bend, and she was able to turn in the direction of the voice.

It was the woman from the second security feed, the one she had spent the past few days chasing after, the one who had hurt at least five people that she was aware of.

Kara would not let Cat become the sixth.

Fighting harder, Kara forced her burning muscles to shift until she was on her feet, shuffling as much as she was able to place Cat behind her.

“I suggest you stop that, Supergirl,” the woman advised, but Kara was momentarily gratified to see she kept her distance. “The magic around you will break if you stress it enough, but I don’t think you want to do that. If we were alone I’d be worried, but you have your human project to think about, after all.”

Kara snarled, the sound muffled but still enough to make the woman flinch, and a thin sheen of sweat covered her brow. She was nervous, obviously afraid of Kara, and if this, the _magic_ would break under enough force, Kara just needed to…

“Do you want to test me? How much are you willing to bet you can free yourself before I can kill Ms. Grant? All it would take is a word. I know you still need her for your plans, so you wouldn’t like that, would you?”

That halted Kara’s movements more effectively than the spell. There was a fanatical gleam in the woman’s eyes, and as much as Kara’s instincts were telling her to push until she found the breaking point, to destroy anyone who dared to threaten Cat, she couldn’t.

“Good, good.” She took a step forward, seeming to gain more confidence at having correctly predicted Kara’s behavior. “I’m going to make you a deal. Unfortunately my magic won’t work on your mind so I can’t just command you to sleep, which means that you need to agree not to fight the physical restraints until I can place you somewhere more secure. If you struggle on the way there, however, Ms. Grant dies. Humans don’t have the same sort of protections against magic that you do, and now that my freezing spell is around her, I don’t even have to be in her proximity to make it less… selective. If I think you’re about to break free, I’ll stop all her internal functions. Do you understand me?”

Cat let out a strangled cry behind her, more in fear for Kara than herself, and Kara’s jaw clenched painfully but she nodded all the same, not enough to challenge the hold of the magic, just her answer.

The woman came closer. “Don’t worry, Supergirl. I’ll send Ms. Grant to bed and as long as you behave, all that will happen is she gets a good night’s rest. She won’t even remember any of this ever took place.”

It was… there had never been any drugs. Kara and Maggie had been so far off base it was laughable. And now, because of their failure, Cat was caught in the middle of all this. So whatever it took, whatever this woman wanted from her, Kara would do if it would keep Cat safe.

The woman bent to pick up Kara’s costume, somehow fitting it whole into her jacket pocket, and when she looked back at Kara, her face was triumphant.

***

Cat hummed to herself as she moved around the kitchen, preparing a late breakfast. She had been up for a few hours already, fussing over Carter more than usual before packing him off to school. He would be spending the next few days with his father and her original breakfast had grown cold as she watched him fondly.

Normally she would be grumpy about that – Carter leaving – but it couldn’t get to her today, and when she had approached the door to wave him off, she had even managed to open it without her heart skipping a beat. It wouldn’t be nearly that easy later on when she actually had to walk through, but it was progress, clear, measurable progress, that showed that Cadmus were not going to win.

It had started this morning with Cat’s alarm going off, with sunlight streaming through the windows. She had been confused at first. The last thing she remembered was getting into bed the evening before, pulling the covers up around her and waiting uneasily for the tossing and turning of a fitful sleep. But after that it was all blank; no hours of waiting, no dreams, no _anything_. She hadn’t had a night like that since before she had been taken, hadn’t woken up so rested in weeks, and it didn’t seem possible that she could have slept so deeply.

But she had, and once it had hit her, the fact that she had slept through the entire night unhindered, a slow smile had formed on her face and hadn’t left since.

The coffee machine beeped and Cat pulled the eggs from the stove, clicking off the flame, her mood improving even more thanks to the perfect timing. She so loved when things worked out like that, everything falling into place. She had built an empire with that efficiency, with her ability to look at things and _know_ how to make all the little pieces fit together.

Transferring the food to a plate and pouring the coffee into a mug, Cat settled herself at the kitchen island and reached for her phone. Her finger hovered over the mail button before a split second decision had her opening the text app instead.

She didn’t need to send anything, but she wanted to reread Kara’s last message, remembering the warm feeling she had gotten at Kara’s excitement for today’s plans. The emoji was a bit over the top – it wasn’t like the meeting was unexpected – but Kara always took the time to let Cat know how much she was looking forward to seeing her. No one before had cared that much, had offered the little things so freely, and Cat couldn’t keep herself from treasuring each and every such gesture.

So it was with almost greedy abandon that she let her eyes linger now… except that instead of the messages she expected to see, there were new ones, three of them to be precise. Two from Kara, one from Cat, exchanged in the late night hour when Cat’s memory was utterly blank.

***

“Cat, slow down!” Alex tried to make sense of the woman’s frantic phone call. It wasn’t like her to be so inarticulate.

“She’s not answering her phone! I’ve called her ten times on the way to her apartment and it goes straight to voicemail!”

“Who are you talking about, I don’t…?” Alex grabbed her car keys, an uneasy feeling settling in her chest. It was a stupid question, the answer was obvious, and Alex braced herself for Cat’s next words.

“Dammit, Alex, I’m talking about Kara! I have texts from her asking to come over last night, only I have no memory of receiving it or writing back, let alone actually meeting with her. And now she’s not… Don’t you understand what this means? I did something to her! Whatever Cadmus did to me, I–” Cat’s voice hitched into something that sounded almost like a sob.

“I’ll be right there. Wait at Kara’s apartment, don’t talk to anyone else.” Alex hung up.

This couldn’t be happening. Her father was still missing, and she couldn’t handle it if Kara…

She forced herself to take deep breaths as she walked to her car, fingers moving to call Kara as she unlocked the vehicle and climbed in. There really was nothing to worry about, even if Kara didn’t pick up that didn’t mean anything. She had probably just gripped her phone too tightly and broken it again. Alex kept telling herself that as the familiar greeting of Kara’s voicemail rang in her ears with almost sickening brightness. She pressed her foot down on the gas.

It took ten minutes to reach Kara’s apartment, ten minutes and four calls later, and it was getting harder to keep her panic in check. She took the stairs three at a time, her heart lurching when she arrived to a wide open door.

“Cat!” She burst inside, finding Cat sitting on Kara’s sofa with Kara’s favorite pillow clutched to her chest. “The door, was it already open like that when you…?”

“I picked the lock, but she’s not here, and she still hasn’t answered her phone. I… it took me all morning to notice the messages! How could I have… I should have sensed something was wrong. Why didn’t I feel it?”

Alex cast around the room as Cat spoke, taking in Kara’s bed, which after a night with the Kryptonian normally looked like it had been hit by a tornado, but as of now was untouched. Kara never bothered to make her bed until she returned from work, so that meant she hadn’t slept in it last night.

Cat was shaking, and Alex knew Kara would want Alex to say something reassuring, but what if Cat was right? What if there was something wrong with her that Alex had missed, sending her sister right into a trap?

She walked around the apartment numbly, opening closets and doors and looking for evidence Kara had just stepped out for work. But her purse was still there, and worse, there was no sign that any dishes had been used for breakfast.

“I was tricking myself.” Cat’s voice was getting higher, more frantic. “I thought I was safe in my apartment, or as long as I was with Kara. But it was all a lie, wasn’t it? They had already gotten to me. This is all my fault. If I could just remember…” Cat trailed off into a moan.

Alex’s eyes landed on the case files spread out over the kitchen table. “I’m calling Maggie. If you have memory loss, maybe it’s about the case Kara was working on, not Cadmus.”

“Oh please, all those other people ended up in the hospital. This is Cadmus, not some street drug!”

“We don’t know that! Maybe there’s another reason you didn’t get sick. Are you really so fixated on your personal issues that you wouldn’t even consider other options? It’s not all about you, Cat, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. When have you ever put Kara first?” Alex regretted the words even as they were leaving her mouth, but she couldn’t stop, lashing out at Cat because she was still just sitting there, hugging _Kara’s_ pillow, and doing nothing.

At least it finally shut her up though, and Cat cringed away from Alex, giving her the breathing room she needed to make the call.

“Sawyer.” Alex felt instantly calmer the moment Maggie picked up, her fracturing control slipping back into place.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, Maggie.” That’s right, it was nothing. In a minute Kara was going to come waltzing in through the window with three or four sticky buns and Alex would scold her for making them all worry. “I was just wondering if you’ve heard from Kara today?”

“She was supposed to meet me ten minutes ago, but she’s running late. What’s going on?” There was worry there, a sharpness entering Maggie’s tone.

“Cat has texts on her phone from Kara saying that she was coming over last night, but Cat has no memory of that, or of seeing Kara. She’s not sick, like the other people, but we’re at Kara’s apartment now and it doesn’t look like she came home.”

There was a long pause, and Alex clenched her teeth, willing Maggie to tell her that Kara had just shown up.

“I know you were with Kara when she and Supergirl figured out that all the victims had some connection to Supergirl in the past, so you have that information already.” Alex almost dropped the phone. She hadn’t known that, Kara must have thrown her name in there to deflect from why Kara and Supergirl would be hanging out together. Suddenly the possibility that Cadmus had Kara seemed far more real. “Cat Grant certainly fits into that profile, so does your sister, for that matter, and there’s been a decrease in symptoms over the last few attacks, so Cat not being sick–”

“The DEO will be taking over the case. Expect to receive the official order in a few minutes.” She hung up, unable to contend with hearing any more.

“What did she say?” Cat pleaded, moving past the previous insult because she needed to know.

“It was about Supergirl all along.” Alex sunk onto the couch next to Cat as her legs gave out. “I–I think we should go back to the DEO. I’ll run some more tests on you, and we’ll… we’ll find her. We will.” She turned to Cat, eyes almost feverish as she reached out to wrap her hand around a corner of the pillow, hoping it would work some of its magic on her.

Kara always did that, hugged pillows when she was upset. It had started when she had first arrived, when she couldn’t hug someone without hurting them, and even though she had gotten much better about knowing limits since, she still turned to pillows in times of distress. And this particular pillow… Alex could remember all too well the day Kara had discovered that she had outgrown her dress, the one she had arrived in.

Kara had ripped it while trying to put it on, but instead of crying or raging, she had gone catatonic, stopping completely as if terrified that if she allowed any feeling, she wouldn’t be able to contain the outpouring. It still sent chills through Alex, that image of Kara shutting down because she had destroyed one of the last pieces of her home.

Nothing had gotten through to her for hours, not even food, until Alex had taken the dress and fixed it. She couldn’t make it whole again, but she had turned it into a pillow, pressed it into Kara’s arms, and then held her from behind as the sobs and emotion finally came.

Alex wished she could find the same comfort in it now, but she didn’t have the memories of a lost world to lend it meaning, and under her fingers, it was only fabric.

***

Maggie stared blankly down at the phone in her hand.

How had this happened? How had she let this… she had relaxed, that was how. Despite all the reasons she hadn’t wanted Kara on the case with her in the beginning, she had found herself giving in all the same.

Her free hand closed into a fist, nails cutting into her palm. She talked a good game, appearing tough at the onset, but she had let her emotions get the better of her. As a result, how often had she indulged Kara? Had she stood silently in the background as Kara passed that picture around? Of course it would be Kara who was seen as the threat, not Maggie.

It was still early, and there was no real guarantee that Kara _was_ missing, but if… Maggie stumbled to her feet, walking to the precinct in a haze. It took fifteen minutes, and as she crossed the threshold, her eyes were draw toward the holding pens.

Working with the theory that Kara had been attacked, if she was just another victim suffering adverse effects, she should have been found by now following the perp’s pattern of positioning people where they would be spotted quickly. But she wasn’t just another victim, she had been investigating, and it wasn’t like Cat had been placed somewhere public either. Or gotten sick for that matter, which suggested that the drug had been perfected at last. So the fact that Kara hadn’t shown up – in the street or just going about her life – it meant something more extreme. It meant either the perp was holding her somewhere, or had gone through extra effort to hide a body. And that… no, Maggie refused to consider that as a real option.

If Kara was missing, she was just that, _missing_ , as if ‘just’ could ever make it ok. She was alive, but captured, because that was what happened to people around Maggie. They ended up in cages to be held and experimented on and tortured.

“Sawyer!” Maggie wanted to shrink away as her captain appeared in front of her, her throat going dry as another thought suddenly occurred to her. What if Kara’s disappearance had nothing to do with the case? What if Kara really had been suspicious, and had started poking around places she shouldn’t? What if… “An order just came down the pipeline. It looks like your case has been taken over by the Feds. You know how I feel about their paperwork and BS, so just take care of it. Give them whatever they want and make sure I don’t have to hear about it again.”

“Yes, sir.” She hadn’t thought she would ever be grateful for how staunch he was in his loyalties, but now she was. If Kara really had been taken by Cadmus in relation to one of his cops, or because of an investigation into his unit, there was no way he wouldn’t have been informed, no way he would be so cavalier about passing this off.

But would the DEO see it that way? The momentary relief that Cadmus didn’t have Kara faded as she contemplated that. The DEO would probably be considering them, given the Supergirl connection and now Cat Grant, and how much time would they devote to investigating that path?

“Good,” he started to turn, pausing and looking down at her dismissively. “I’ll have something more for you soon enough, but until then, find a way to keep yourself busy and out of my way. You can manage that, right?”

She nodded, skin crawling as her eyes flicked to his office, knowing that whatever he was implying would come next, it would be an order given from behind that closed door. But she wasn’t there quite… ‘Soon,’ he had said. Cadmus would come for her soul again soon enough, but until then, she wasn’t done yet.

***

Zatanna gasped as she sat up in the makeshift bed, breaking from the haze of memories. Sleeping normally wasn’t a problem for her, there was a simple spell to block dreams, but it hadn’t been strong enough to protect her last night with Supergirl so close. Or today, she realized, noticing that it was early afternoon, the late hour of her activities and the strain of holding Supergirl confined for the trip wearing her out.

She turned her head to check on the alien, but there was no way Supergirl could break free now that she had been transferred to the cage. Zatanna had been preparing for the capture ever since her arrival on this Earth, burning runes into wood talismans and placing them around the metal cage to make a containment field strong enough to hold even a Kryptonian. Supergirl had tested it last night, as soon as Zatanna had severed her tie to Cat, and she hadn’t been able to break free.

There were several layers of protection. One on the bars and under the floors themselves to add a physical durability that was more secure than the freezing spell Zatanna had used at first. Eventually Supergirl might be able to bend the bars but that was where the second line of defense came in. If she approached them or dug more than a few inches under her feet, she would be hit with a burning attack, intense enough that even if her skin didn’t crackle or show signs of distress, the pain from the spell would lance through her. It would be slight at first, but grow in power the closer she came to escape, crippling her so that even if she did reach the bars, she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

There were other contingencies as well. Part of the roof of the old hangar was caved in, but Supergirl’s cage was in the far corner to prevent direct sunlight from reaching her, and there were both cold and heat spells set to activate to counteract any attempts to use heat vision or freeze breath to damage the runes from a distance.

The final piece was that Zatanna didn’t plan on feeding Supergirl at all over the next few days. Thanks to what she had learned about Kryptonian physiology from Astra, that would weaken Supergirl but not kill her, and it would also remove the need to worry about waste.

It was all still working perfectly, and Zatanna’s heart rate calmed at seeing Supergirl still in the center of the cage.

“Why are you doing this?” Supergirl rose to her feet, looking at her with intense eyes. “I haven’t done anything to you. Why did you have to hurt those people to find me?”

Zatanna climbed to her feet as well, moving to stand in front of the bars. She shouldn’t be wasting time on this, she needed to prepare for the next stage of her plan, but aside from the short ‘conversations’ she had had while trying to gather information, she hadn’t really had anyone to talk to in a while. After years of living under Myriad, she had grown used to relative silence, but being used to something didn’t mean that she had to like it.

“As if you really care about those people. If I had threatened anyone other than Cat Grant, you would have just let them die. But you need her, so that forced your compliance.”

At the mention of Cat, Supergirl stepped forward, flinching back when the movement carried her too close to the bars. “I would have made the same decision no matter whose life you threatened.”

Zatanna tilted her her head to the side. “You’re certainly good at pretending like you would, but we both know the truth, so you can drop the act.”

“What act?” It was almost a yell, and when Zatanna made to walk away, Supergirl held up her hands. “Wait, please. I’m not using Cat for anything, I would never… I care about her. Surely you could see that last ni–”

“You _care_ about her?” Zatanna couldn’t repress her harsh laugh. “I know all about what it means when Supergirl cares about someone like that. I watched it happen on my Earth, exactly as I’m sure it would have played out on this one soon enough. I watched the great ‘hero’ come down from the sky and catch a plane. I watched the woman I loved fall for her over a series of interviews and a number of daring saves. And you know what? I sat by and let it happen. I thought if I really loved Lois I shouldn’t fight for her. I was only a stage magician then, and how could I compete with Supergirl? What did I have to offer that you couldn’t?”

“Lois? Lois Lane is what this is all about?” Supergirl’s eyes flared dangerously, the red glow only held back because she knew by now it would be pointless. “You came here, threatened the woman I… threatened Cat, because back on your Earth, Supergirl stole your girlfriend? This is some petty jealousy thing?”

Zatanna knew she should stop talking now, but the words spilled forth, the angry tirade she had held in for so long. Astra might not have told her Supergirl’s name, but she had told her other things, and now Zatanna let them fly forth.

“You tricked her,” she snarled, hands balling into fists. “You tricked all of us. In my universe your ship left first, and Superman was the one stuck in the Phantom Zone. But you didn’t know that, so you presented yourself to the world, hoping he would find you since you had failed to find him. And when he didn’t, you decided to take it out on us. You encouraged the little crush Lois had on you, using her to spread the good word, to make the public love you, and then when you started killing, enacting your own law, people looked the other way. By the time anyone was willing to stand up to you it was already too late. You are a _monster_ , Supergirl. You’re insane and evil and you need to be destroyed.”

Supergirl’s eyes had widened as she spoke, mouth falling open as Zatanna spat the words.

“You… you saw me with Cat, and you thought it was happening again? That I was just using her until I could…” she cut off, sounding horrified, but Zatanna knew better than to trust that, no matter how convincing it might seem to someone else.

“Thought? I know. You’ve been wrong even since your world exploded. It broke you, Supergirl. Superman did eventually show up, although on my Earth he’s still just a child, and when he did he brought Fort Rozz with him. But you know what? You didn’t stop. You actually went further. Ever heard of Myriad? Well, you used it. My Earth is a wasteland of zombies now because of you.”

“I stopped Myriad here. I risked my life to end it. I could never be what you’re saying.”

“Really? I bet the real reason was that Myriad just didn’t fit into your timetable here. You needed to be stronger before you could be sure all the prisoners would follow you, because that would never work for you, would it? Letting someone else rule, even if it was family?”

“Astra, she’s… what happened to Astra on your Earth? Your Supergirl didn’t… didn’t hurt her, did she?” She sounded genuinely concerned, and Zatanna found it sickening.

“She’s alive, if that’s what you’re pretending to be worried about now. She’s how I have all this information about you, actually. There are only a few of us left, people like me who can resist for whatever reason – magic, different brain chemistry, technology – you’ve been hunting us for years, playing with us, and not because you care about the planet like the other Kryptonians. You do it because you like violence, and when Astra saw what you had twisted her dream into… she still loves you, somehow, and she won’t outright challenge you, but she does work against you when she can. She helps those of us who are left survive and fight back.”

“Alive,” Supergirl let out a breath, her shoulders sagging in false relief.

“Only until you decide to kill her.”

“No! I could nev… You keep calling your Supergirl me, but we’re not the same person.” Supergirl was pleading now, and there was something distinctly satisfying about that. “There was a time when I was broken, you’re right about that, but I was adopted by an amazing family, and my–”

“That’s your argument?” Zatanna scoffed. “You expect me to believe that after watching your world burn as a child, anything else wasn’t trivial in comparison?”

“It wasn’t trivial, it’s not–”

“It is.” Zatanna stepped closer to the bars. “But let’s say that somehow you really aren’t evil like your counterpart. Would that still hold true if I had killed Cat, if I had attacked this ‘amazing’ family of yours?” Supergirl looked away, and Zatanna grinned. “I’m right, aren’t I? Don’t think I don’t know about that incident with red kryptonite. I saw it when I was scrying for destinations, it’s why I chose this Earth to begin with. That rage and darkness is in you, and as much as you might fool everyone else into thinking it was just a drug, I know better. I’ve seen what happens when you let it out.”

“I’m not… I wouldn’t…”

“But you did.” Supergirl had backed up during Zatanna’s last angry rant, face creasing in pain as the runes behind her activated, but she made no move to return to the center of the cage, slumping down instead and holding herself against Zatanna’s words.

It should have felt wonderful, it _did_ , for a few seconds, but then as the exaltation of the moment faded, the emotional exhaustion set it. Zatanna was drained, and in the emptiness left in the wake of her outburst, there was just enough room for a small shred of doubt to slip in.

Before that could take root, she turned away. It didn’t matter. Even if it was the case that this Supergirl wasn’t that person yet, someday she would be. In the end, all the Supergirls were the same.

***

“Anything?” Alex asked, looking up from the freshly printed documents when she heard Winn stop typing.

“No.” He shook his head, not meeting her eyes. “The last signal from her phone pinged in the vicinity of Cat’s apartment, but after that I have nothing.”

Alex clenched her right fist over her left to mask a small tremble. With Kara’s purse left behind and no sign of the suit, it made sense that Kara had flown to Cat’s apartment, meaning that her phone would have been in her boot. Maybe she had gotten in a fight and taken a blow to the leg, crushing the phone, but Winn had designed the compartment well. It should have been able to withstand a range of attacks, physical or electronic. Which meant the far more looming possibility was that someone who knew where it was hidden had taken it and disabled the tracking, someone like the woman who was currently undergoing a barrage of tests in the medical wing with no memory of what had happened.

“It could have fallen through an interdimensional portal,” Winn offered, but his tone belied how unlikely he found that possibility.

“Just keep looking.” Alex turned back to the pages, starting to go through them again.

She had called ahead so the request for the case transfer had already been sent down by the time she and Cat had arrived at the DEO, the actual files arriving just a few minutes later. J’onn was currently with Cat, supervising the tests and running a few of his own, while Alex was here, reading through the scant documents.

So far, nothing in the notes indicated any Cadmus involvement. Sure, there was the Supergirl connection, but Kara had a number of enemies, and if it wasn’t for Cat’s presence, Cadmus wouldn’t have been so high on the list of suspects. It was the only reason Alex was still marginally in control of herself, knowing that if someone else had Kara, a ‘monster of the week,’ as it were, it was something she knew how to deal with. But if it was Cadmus… they had the infrastructure to do more than just contain her. They could be experimenting on her even now, torturing her, _dissecting_ her. They could be…

_Stop!_ She tried to thrust the thoughts away, feeling the control falter as images of Kara broken, dying, crying out for her sister, began to flood her mind. Her father was there as well, in most of them hurting right alongside Kara, but in others… in others he was the one with the knife. _STOP!_

This time it worked, clamping her walls down on her emotions, and she shuffled the pages around until she was back at the first victim.

There was nothing especially interesting about him, being saved by Supergirl had probably been a high point in his life, and she was just about to move on to the next when the date of the attack stuck out at her.

Cadmus had been quiet ever since their last video had been released. After a week of waiting for something more to come of it, the superfriends had jointly decided that it was just a propaganda video, made as a filler until Cadmus moved on to whatever their real next step was.

“Winn. The last Cadmus video, can you pull it up again?”

He gave her an odd look but complied. Soon the large screen was filled with pictures of Supergirl and the damage she caused during her battles. A sinister voice echoed around the room, prompting people to watch, to see the truth of her devastation with their own eyes. As the video drew to its end, it landed the final blow, claiming people had been corrupted, lied to, and now it was up to everyone to _forget_ the title of hero, and replace it with villain.

“This was released the night before the first attack,” Winn said as realization dawned on him.

“We just ignored it, but all of this… the timing, Cat’s presence, tests of a memory drug on people who were saved by Supergirl… it…” It wasn’t just her hand that was shaking now, it was her voice as well.

The only memories affected were the ones around the attack, but what if Cadmus was doing something that would work over weeks or months to color peoples’ memories of Supergirl? It could be a new form of Mercy. That didn’t match the blood work, precisely, but maybe they had found a way to disguise it, maybe that’s why none of the tests were coherent.

Alex tried to cling to the other possibilities, but the video started playing over again in a loop those began to slip away.

“Get J’onn. The Cadmus investigation is coming back in house. There’s no way Washington can block it now.”

Winn scampered off without a reply, leaving Alex alone in the room without an anchor.

How could they have been so foolish? Thinking Cadmus had gone quiet? It had never been hiding to work on the next big step, it had been out in the open, doing it all along. And Maggie…

There was nothing in her notes about Cadmus, no indication that Maggie had even considered them a possibility. Kara hadn’t either, but she didn’t have Maggie’s years of experience.

It was understandable that Maggie might have dismissed the date connection between the video and the first victim, the memory parallels alone not enough to form a strong case, but after the Supergirl connection had come to light? Even with less than a full day between that and Kara going missing, there should have been something.

“Please, Maggie,” Alex didn’t know who she was really speaking to, but she began to search through all the pages again in short, frantic movements that left the discarded papers crumpled and ripped. “Just one note, just one…” It had taken Alex less than an hour to think of it, after all.

She came to the last page, reading it over three times as if new words would magically appear.

They didn’t.

Maybe it was a mistake, just something Maggie had overlooked. It _had_ only been a day in between, and not everyone was as fixated on Cadmus as Alex was.

But if it wasn’t… Alex couldn’t deny that Maggie was suspicious, that at the very least she had a contact in Cadmus that she was refusing to share. And if it was more than that? If… Alex just couldn’t rectify the image she had of Maggie, the smart, capable detective, with someone who could miss this connection unless there was more at play.

Alex’s arms wrapped around her waist, holding herself together.

Was Maggie was working with Cadmus, deliberately steering the investigation the wrong way? When Kara had shown interest, had Maggie’s job expanded to include keeping tabs on her as well? And when Kara had discovered the Supergirl thread despite Maggie’s efforts, had Maggie been the one to report back, to let the boss know that Supergirl herself was getting too close?

There was a phone ringing somewhere, and it took a few seconds for Alex to register that it was hers. There was an initial leap of her heart when she thought it might be Kara, but it was just another agent, just someone else who didn’t know where her sister was.

***

“Alright, Detective,” the security guard spoke to Maggie as he hung up the phone. “Agent Danvers is on her way down, if you’ll just wait for a moment?”

“Of course.” Could he hear her hesitation? The part of her that wanted to run? Her captain had pretty much given her free rein to give the DEO whatever they wanted on this case as long as it kept them out of his precinct, so if they wanted a joint operation? There would be no reason for him to think she was being disloyal for saying yes, especially considering that this had nothing to do with Cadmus. But even so, she was fighting to stay put. Her coming here wasn’t exactly in response to a summons, and if he found out that _she_ had been the one to push for more collaboration, it could change how he saw things. Not enough for him do anything drastic, but there would be an added watchfulness for a while, and the orders she received would probably be more… unpleasant.

“You can have a seat, if you’d like.” The guard waved towards a few chairs, but Maggie shook her head, too tense to sit.

Even if she didn’t want to be here, she _needed_ to be, at least until she could confirm that the DEO wouldn’t concentrate their efforts on Cadmus.

“Sawyer.” Alex’s voice was clipped, her posture stiff as she strode through the door, and Maggie drew back reflexively.

“Alex?” It wasn’t supposed to be a question, but even in this situation Maggie had expected some recognition, not this apprupt, bitten off rendition of her name.

“I received your files. The DEO is taking over the case now as I said. Your presence isn’t required.”

That wasn’t… she hadn’t really considered this possibility, that Alex would actually say no, and she wasn’t prepared for the flood of relief. After all, how big of a risk was it really? With all their resources? Did Maggie honestly think that the DEO would believe Cadmus had kidnapped a junior reporter? Probably not. They might do a cursory check, but there was no reason for them to get sidetracked by that. There was no…

As quickly as it had come, the relief was gone, replaced with a deep shame. It didn’t matter how small the risk was, until she was certain they would look at all possibilities, she had to keep pressing. But she hadn’t come with a plan for this, and she didn’t know what to say.

“I know this case better than anyone.” It was the first thing that came to mind, weak even to her own ears.

“Do you? I wonder, Detective. How much do you really know?” Maggie didn’t understand, but she also didn’t have time to dwell on Alex’s meaning.

“You don’t have to decide right now. Just let me talk through my notes with you and get you up to speed first.”

Alex’s eyes flashed at the mention of her notes. “I’m already past where you were. I got further in an hour than you did in the entire investigation.”

“Alex, if you’ll just listen to me for a minute, plea–”

“Listen to you?” Something snapped, and Alex stepped forward, forcing Maggie back. “Is that what you told Kara? Did you tell her to listen to you, to trust you? Did you–”

“Alex!” She was getting desperate, but Alex was too far gone.

“Cadmus has my sister!” It was a yell, the words themselves unintentional, and a second later Alex reeled back as she realized just how far her control had slipped.

“No…” Maggie wasn’t sure if she’d said the word out loud or not, but regardless, Alex’s expression hardened as she reined herself in.

“Go home, Detective. You’ve done enough.”

Maggie tried to make her lips move, to press air through her vocal chords, but it wasn’t working. Nothing was, and all she could do was watch Alex spin on her heel and march back through the door.

“Alex…” Finally it came out, a small piece of her fighting to call the woman back.

All it would take was a few seconds. She just needed to tell the guard that she had information on Cadmus, and they would let her through. It would be longer than that afterwards, a cell to hold her in, hours or days of questions, but to get it started, those few seconds would be all it would take. And the few seconds after that, the ones where she could tell them that she _knew_ Cadmus didn’t have Kara, those seconds could save Kara’s life.

Only it wasn’t just Kara’s life. She had risked too much the first time, placed her aunt in harm’s way. Maybe the DEO could promise to protect her if Maggie came clean, but Cadmus had managed to replace the director for ten days, which didn’t exactly fill her with confidence. So even if they didn’t have someone else undercover now, she wasn’t so naïve to think that that would never change. And if something happened to her, who would watch out for M’gann and the other non-violent aliens? Cadmus would have no qualms about snatching them up indiscriminately if Maggie wasn’t around to deliver the dangerous ones into their grasp.

The guard cleared his throat, looking somewhat embarrassed for her.

“I’m…” she wavered. Was she really going to just walk out that door? Let the DEO spend all their resources looking in the wrong place? It turned out the answer was yes.

The sunlight hit her with full force as she left the building, bringing the shadows into stark focus as Alex’s words from the bar came back to her.

_“Don’t drink too much, Detective. Knowing Kara, she’ll be back in full swing tomorrow and if you’re too hungover to properly keep an eye on her…”_ Had that really been just a day and a half ago? It had been a joke then, but Maggie _had_ drunk too much, and the next night Kara had been taken.

“So this is it, huh?” She looked around as she spoke. Alex had followed up the initial ‘threat’ with the promise of a DEO black site, and the picture it had inspired in Maggie’s head had been no fairytale, but now she knew the truth. They didn’t need to take her anywhere, to throw her in any dark dungeon, she was already there.

***

“Alex, there you are. I came to tell yo–”

“Tap Maggie’s phone, her computer, whatever you can find,” Alex cut Winn off, ignoring the pang of guilt as she gave the order, Maggie’s face as Alex had yelled at her still fresh in her mind.

“A–are you sure?” His eyes widened, so used to her defending the detective.

If Maggie was clean, Alex could apologize later, after Kara was home safe and sound. But if she wasn’t… Alex didn’t want to risk placing a detail on her that could be discovered, and bringing her in for questioning could trigger a nuclear option against Kara, but Alex also couldn’t just leave Maggie alone if she might have answers.

“I’m sure, Agent Schott. Get it done.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GIVE IT UP FOR THE EDITORS, all of whom have improved every episode!  
> supercattuccino ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/krystalgoderitch) | [tumblr](http://supercattuccino.tumblr.com/ask)),@spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), @Revolos55 ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Revolos55/pseuds/Revolos55) | [tumblr](http://saunteringvaguelydownwards.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask)) for their beta work on all episodes so far!


	7. Act IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously on Supergirl Virtual Season...

  


Another @supergaysupercat creation that brings the Sanvers tension and then some. Share the love [on Tumblr](http://supergaysupercat.tumblr.com/ask) or in the comments here. 


	8. Act IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Kara still missing, those left behind are falling apart, and when Zatanna reveals her plans for the hero at last, Kara own emotional state isn’t far behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t you just love the effect on this gif by @xy0009? ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))

J’onn flew above the city, ears open for any signs of citizens in need. He had stopped several petty crimes already and each one brought a mix of emotions. It felt good to get out like this, to help in a more direct way, and on a selfish level, it even felt good to escape from the oppressive air of the DEO and just forget about all that was going on there for a short time. But then there was always that moment, the inevitable one after each save, when the potential victim would look at him, but they would thank Supergirl. And then J’onn would remember he was wearing a skirt, that Kara was still missing, and that while he was out here covering for Supergirl’s absence, he wasn’t doing anything to bring her home.

Not that there would be much to do even if he was back at the DEO. Washington had approved the investigation, with Supergirl missing they couldn’t block it anymore, but aside from the Cadmus video, they hadn’t found any new leads, and the old lead about the airport had proved useless. After countless sweeps and even more interviews, they had had to conclude that Cadmus didn’t have a base of operations in that area.

He had hoped for more during an attempt to read Cat’s mind again – she had refused to leave the DEO, huddled back in her containment cell while Carter’s trip with his father had been extended – but the mental block had been unsurpassable and a deep scan like that was too invasive to perform on any of the other victims. At least they had been able to confirm from lab work that Cat had been affected by the same substance as the others, which was something. They could now say for sure that Cat’s memory loss hadn’t been a fluke, but as of yet they were no closer to figuring out what those readings meant.

_It’s only been four days,_ he tried to tell himself, flight slowing as he turned over to look up at the sky, shivering as the red glow of the lowering sun sparked a memory of fire. _Only four days. They held you for ten and you’re fine._

It wasn’t strictly true. They had tortured him, maybe not physically, but the mental barrage of images and sensations they had used to overrun his mind were still there. He could close his eyes and feel them all bouncing around inside, mingling with the other horrors he had experienced, lifetimes ago on another world.

His aimless flying had taken him into the vicinity of the alien bar, and it wasn’t hard to guess why. He needed the reminder, now more than ever, that there was always hope, even in an area where he had grown used to having none.

With one last, cursory check that no one was calling out for help, he landed and shifted into his regular human form before entering.

It was quiet in the bar, most aliens wouldn’t risk walking outside until after dark, so he had his pick of seats. He gravitated to one out of the way where M’gann could avoid him if she really wanted to. He wasn’t about to press, wouldn’t force his own need for another of his kind onto her, but he wanted her to know he was here if she cared to reach back.

She ignored him for a time, but finally the patron she was talking to wandered off, and she walked over.

“J’onn.” She nodded, wary.

“M’gann,” he returned the greeting. “I’ll just take whatever you have on hand. You seem busy so don’t worry too much about me, I only came in for a short break.” She wasn’t busy and they both knew it, but she nodded again, a little more relaxed in recognition of the out he was giving her.

“Haven’t seen you in here recently,” she said, placing an open beer in front of him.

“Yes… I’ve been meaning to stop back in. I’m sorry it took me so long.”

She shrugged. “It’s a bar. Excluding an unforeseen event, it will be here.”

It wasn’t exactly welcoming, but the unspoken ‘I’ll be here’ lingered between them, and J’onn’s heart eased a tiny amount. More so, when the conversation continued with a few exchanged pleasantries and M’gann showed no signs of moving away. It was nice, being here with her like this. She might not be ready to connect with him in another way yet, connect in the way of their people, but for now her willingness to stand here was enough.

It didn’t last.

“Kara still missing?” At his surprised look, M’gann elaborated. “Maggie was here yesterday. As of then she was still looking, and don’t think I can’t tell the difference between the real Supergirl and you in drag.” She offered a small smile, trying to ease the question with the joke, but it twisted painfully in his gut.

He wished she hadn’t brought up Maggie.

J’onn didn’t know what to think about the detective. He wanted to like her. Not only had she helped save him and Cat, but she was friends with M’gann, and he had to think that counted for something. But in truth neither of those were any real justification. The first could have been a ploy to maneuver Cat into the desired position to be of use, and even Maggie’s continued search now could be part of a cover. As for the second, well, that was just brought about by his desire to trust M’gann, to believe that she was someone who shared his same culture and values and dreams.

“I didn’t realize she was still working the case,” he tried for conversational, hoping to brush past this topic and back to lighter things, but already he could feel his tension returning.

He supposed he should have known what Maggie was up to, considering the surveillance, but J’onn wasn’t directly involved in sorting through her digital footprint. He had taken Winn at his word when he reported no suspicious activity, trusting his employee to do his job. That was also the reason J’onn hadn’t tried to read Maggie’s mind. It was one thing to forgo ethics when he had cause, and he was fairly confident he could slip into Maggie’s surface thoughts without her notice, but unless they had anything real to confirm she was a Cadmus operative, he couldn’t do it.

Which meant it was possible the answers were just sitting there, waiting in Maggie’s head, and that by not acting, J’onn was about to lose two daughters all over again. Because that would be the result, if they didn’t find Kara alive. J’onn had no illusions that Alex would survive in anything more than a physical sense, and he wasn’t sure he would either.

“She is.” M’gann fixed him with a firm look. “You should let her in. She’s going to run herself ragged trying to figure this out on her own, and she might have some useful insights.”

There was nothing of the earlier tone, the easy flow between them, and he didn’t want to be here anymore, but M’gann wasn’t done.

“She’s been trying to get in touch with Cat Grant, you know.” M’gann lowered her voice reflexively even though no one was around. “Please, J’onn, just let her help. She’s… Maggie has her secrets, but she’s a good person, and she doesn’t deserve any of this.”

“If I were you, I’d spend my energy trying to convince her to drop it, rather than me to let her in.” It was patronizing, and M’gann’s shoulders slumped at the dismissal. But as J’onn tossed some bills down on the counter and made to leave, there was a petty side of him that was almost glad for that. He had come to the bar to find a short reprieve, and he had even thought he might be successful at finding it when M’gann had come over. But M’gann hadn’t really been interested in him, she had only approached because of Maggie.

That feeling began to fade by the time he reached the alley, and he grimaced as he rubbed his temple. It wasn’t his place to be upset about M’gann choosing her friend over him – someone she barely even knew – and he shouldn’t have let the hurt dictate his behavior. But he had, and now that it was over, there were other pressing concerns to keep him from going back in.

J’onn pulled out his phone, thumbing through the contacts until he reached his agent.

“Vasquez,” she picked up on the first ring.

Shoving aside the emotional complexities, he forced himself to look at the situation from a tactical perspective. Maybe he didn’t know what to do as J’onn, the father whose surrogate daughters’ fate might hang in the balance, but he did know what to do as Director of the DEO.

“Put Cat Grant on the phone. There’s something I need her to do.”

***

Cat sat on the small cot in the corner of the DEO quarantine cell, her eyes closed so she wouldn’t have to look at the walls around her. If she did, they would fold in on her and she would end up pounding on the glass, begging to be let out until her hands started to bleed and someone came in to sedate her.

It was a visceral reaction, ultimately meaningless but there all the same. It didn’t matter that she knew these walls were different, that she wasn’t back at Cadmus, trapped in that first cage. Even the walls of her apartment would feel this way to her now, too tight, too small, too _there_.

She wanted out, wanted to run and scream and flee to a place where no one could catch her, to disappear in a vast field of empty space that had nothing to box her in.

Except that wouldn’t change a thing, because her fear of these cages was physical, was based on the few memories she did have of that time, but that wasn’t her only fear. No, for all that the walls of Cadmus were what she saw when she opened her eyes, or when she closed them but fell into dreams, it was the other fear that was far more pressing. The fear of what was already inside. So while her body might fight to escape, she held herself still, reminding herself over and over again that she needed to be here, locked away where she couldn’t hurt anyone else.

If only the certainty of that realization had come sooner.

But instead she had let them all convince her, if not completely, then at least enough for her doubts to have doubts of their own. And in turn she had convinced herself that the reason she should be afraid to step outside was because Cadmus might take her again, as if they hadn’t already bent her to their will.

She wondered if Lillian – or whoever it really was that the image of Lillian represented – was laughing at her, if they had any inkling of what Cat had become. Cadmus had succeeded in breaking her mind during those original eight days, Cat knew that now, but even then they hadn’t taken her spirit. That was new. It had shattered the moment Cat had read those text messages and realized what she had done.

Footsteps sounded down the hall, coming towards her, and she risked opening one of her eyes. She regretted it as soon as she did, the walls spinning and swirling, but she forced her second eye open all the same, standing on shaking legs to greet Agent Vasquez.

“Did you… Is Kara…?”

“No news yet, ma’am.” Cat slumped back onto the bed, closing her eyes again.

“Don’t call me ma’am.” It was a reflex more than anything else, the words lacking in care.

“I have Director J’onzz on the phone for you, Ms. Grant.” Cat heard the swoosh of the door and she pressed down the growing urge to run.

“Ms. Grant?” Vasquez asked again, but Cat made no move to take the phone. She had demanded to be updated on every aspect of the investigation, every lead or suspicion no matter how small, but if this wasn’t about Kara, she didn’t see why she should bother. “Director, I’m with Ms. Grant. I’m putting you on speakerphone now.”

“–ank you, Agent.” J’onn’s voice became audible part way through. “Cat, I need you to talk to Detective Sawyer. She hasn’t dropped the case and I think you may be able to change her mind.”

“No.” She wished Vasquez would take the phone and leave. Cat wanted to be alone, the space feeling even more crowded with someone else inside.

“Cat…” A sigh. “I know you want to stay in the cell, but we have no proof that Maggie’s working with Cadmus, and she could be putting herself in serious danger by looking into this without backup.”

“Please,” Cat scoffed. “Even if she’s not part of Cadmus, she knows someone who is, and if she’s not willing to come forward with that information now, she doesn’t deserve to have you waste time on her that could be spent searching for Kara.”

The blunt rejection was perhaps unwarranted, but as more days passed without progress, Cat found her rational thought process beginning to fail. She was on edge, angry at everything, herself and Cadmus most of all, and she needed an outlet.

Maggie had become that outlet, both because she had at least one connection to organization that had taken Kara, and because Cat didn’t know her at all so there was little to inspire sympathy. Even the knowledge that Maggie had helped rescue her had been twisted by her current state of mind. She still took the blame of Kara’s capture for herself, but where once she might have thanked Maggie for saving her, now she could only see where none of this would have happened without her.

If it wasn’t for Maggie, Cat never would have survived, never would have been released back into the world. She never would have been in a position to hurt Kara, and maybe Kara wouldn’t even have fought so hard to get on the case in the first place. And that… that would mean Kara wouldn’t have discovered the Supergirl connection, wouldn’t have put the pressure on Cadmus to move on her so soon, at a time when the superfriends and the DEO were so unprepared to stop them.

Of course that also brought it all back around to land on Cat again, because Cat had pushed her to do it, hadn’t she? She knew from her own experiences as a reporter how dangerous the profession could be, but she had encouraged Kara anyway. Ultimately, Kara would have done what she wanted regardless, but had Cat needed to make it quite so easy?

“Then don’t do it for her, do it for Kara.” She flinched at his words; how dare he use that against her. “Cadmus might know Kara’s identity, but if Maggie doesn’t, we have a duty to keep her from finding out. And she will, if she doesn’t stop investigating Kara’s life.”

“Who cares about Kara’s identity when we don’t have Kara?” What could it matter, one more person learning who she was? Cat would shout Kara’s name to the entire world if she thought it would bring her home. But maybe that was part of Cadmus’s plan, part of what they had programmed her to do.

“We will get her back, you have to trust that.” Why? She had trusted them when they said she was fine, unchanged by her confinement. How could she trust them now? “When we do, we need to make sure that she’ll still have a life to come back to.”

Her energy for this argument was fading, the fight too emotionally exhausting.

“You think somehow I’ll be able to change her mind? Why would she listen to me?”

“She’s been asking for you. I would go myself but she knows what I am and she could see through the impersonation.”

Maybe it would be best to just give in, to get this over with so she could return to this space and shut herself down.

“I’m not agreeing, but if I did, what would you want me to say?”

“Alex told her that it was Cadmus, but Maggie’s had a few days with that already, so the only potentially new information out there is something she could learn from you. If you can convince her that you really have nothing for her, it might be enough to get her to back off.”

For a brief second Cat envisioned marching up to Maggie, using all her skills to put Maggie to the test until Cat found out the truth, but just as quickly that idea faded. If Cat’s theoretical questioning got too close, they ran the risk of it all turning around and coming down on Kara.

“Cat…” J’onn wasn’t going to let this go.

“Ten minutes,” she offered. “I’ll talk to her, but only for ten minutes. After that I don’t want to hear about this again.”

“Thank you.” He sounded relieved. “You’ll have a team of agents with you. Out and back, I promise.”

***

Alex kept the sedative in her hand, watching Cat closely across the open expanse of the van for any signs that she would have to use it. They were the only two people back here, the driver and Vasquez up front so intent on their surroundings that they might as well have been on a different world, and with the other four agents in a separate van altogether, there was no idle chatter for Alex to focus on instead. So this was what she was doing, needle at the ready in case it was needed, wondering if it was possible to discern which of them was more upset about this trip. Cat, because she was terrified of herself, and Alex, both because this was taking valuable time away from looking for Kara, and because in that time, she was going to have to see Maggie.

Not directly – Maggie wouldn’t even know she was there – but didn’t that make it worse? The surveillance that Alex had ordered had turned up nothing, and this felt like an extension of that, Alex lurking in the background of Maggie’s life while Maggie continued her pursuit. And how was Alex supposed to feel about _that_? The fact that after her harsh words, the anger and doubt, Maggie was still searching?

It could prove that she was genuine, or it could prove nothing at all, and Alex was too tired and too lost without Kara for any of it to make sense. The only things that did make sense, the only things she knew for sure, were that she did not want to see Maggie, she did not want to confront this, and that as long as she was here in this van, she wasn’t finding Kara.

“You could use that, you know.” Cat broke the silence, nodding to the sedative. “Say I started acting strange, that we had to abort the mission.”

It was tempting, and for a second Alex let herself consider it, but then her thoughts were back on Maggie, hurt because they hadn’t stopped her, and back on Kara, exposed because Maggie had gotten too close. Alex might not want to be here, but she did need for this to happen.

“J’onn would know.” She went for the logical rebuttal, keeping the emotions to herself. “And he would just make us go out again. Winn’s tracking says that Maggie normally steps out to the same food truck to get dinner every evening around now. Let’s just get on with it, Grant. Don’t screw this up.”

Cat huffed, a spark of her old self flaring up at the challenge, but it faded all too quickly, and she half turned to stare out the window.

Alex tilted her head, narrowing her eyes and observing Cat critically. What a pair they made. On any given day both of them were forces to be reckoned with, people who could stride into a room and instantly become the most formidable thing in there, but put Kara in danger and they were reduced to this. To Cat watching the street lights flash past with hollow, sunken eyes, and Alex, exhausted and running on fumes. All because one person was missing that it didn’t seem as if either of them could live without.

***

Cat tried to appear confident as she stepped out of the van, but her senses were overwhelmed with fresh stimuli, and each new smell and flash of color made her flinch. She shouldn’t be here, she should be back at the DEO, locked away where she couldn’t… People moved all around her, none of them coming close enough to touch, but in each of them she saw both the potential for captors and victims; one who, with a word or phrase could activate her, the other becoming nothing more that a simple mind that would fall to her – or Cadmus’s – will.

And which one was Maggie? By approaching now, what could she possibly unleash? Cat stuffed her hands into her pockets to hide the trembling.

“Ms. Grant!” Maggie jumped up from the bench she had been sitting on, her apparent exhaustion doing nothing to sway Cat’s uncertainty.

“You wanted to speak with me?” She kept her voice terse, missing the power pose she could hide behind if only she wasn’t afraid to take her hands out of her pockets. “This has been turned over to people with far better resources than you, Detective.”

“And with all their better resources, have they found anything?” Maggie shot back, leaning forward into Cat’s space.

Cat gritted her teeth, wanting to step away, but she held her ground and delivered her line.

“I’d advise you drop it and get some sleep before you do something that could get Kara in any more trouble.”

“Respectfully, Ms. Grant, I’m not going to let this go. Someone has to consider suspects other than Cadmus. That’s what it takes to be a real detective. You don’t just go around dismissing legitimate possibilities because one seems more obvious.” Cat would agree with that, in another time, but it was hard not to hear Maggie’s words now and wonder if she was just trying to deflect them. “The DEO might be convinced, but I’m not. I have to trust that if I do my job right, I’ll find her, and that my actions won’t place her in further jeopardy.”

And what did she mean by that? Which job was she referring to? Did Maggie _know_ that nothing she did on a false hunt could impact Kara? Or was she sincere? The fact that Cat couldn’t risk any probing questions to figure it out was only making her angrier.

She latched onto that, using her anger to fuel her. “Do your job right? Were you doing your job right when you let _my_ reporter tag along on your case? When you put her in harm’s way? Were you doing your job right when she was the one that made the Supergirl connection and called attention to herself, not you?”

“I deserve that.” It was soft, and Cat couldn’t bring herself to feel bad. “But again, with all due respect, I wasn’t going to be able to stop her, and if she really is _your_ reporter, I think you know that already. Aren’t you the one who hired her for the job? Didn’t you show up with her to a crime scene not too long ago?”

Cat snarled, but Maggie ignored her and continued on.

“Why don’t you tell me what this is really about. What are you holding back from me?”

This was the moment. Cat could do it, could sway an innocent Maggie to stop her search, but she hesitated.

“Just sit with me, answer a few questions.” Maggie begged. “Or if you won’t do that, walk back towards the precinct with me. You can wait outside while I go in and pick up your glasses.”

“My glasses?” Cat blinked, thrown by the sudden change.

“Kara pulled them out of her bag the other day and forgot to pack them up again, so I grabbed them and put them in my desk to give back to her later. I assume they’re yours. They weren’t hers, and Alex doesn’t wear glasses, so I thought… it will only take a few minutes, Ms. Grant. We’ll talk on the way. Please?”

Cat closed her eyes. How very like Kara to be wandering around with one of her spare sets. But by bringing them up, Maggie had sealed her fate. In her anger, Cat was weak, liable to go along with what J’onn wanted, because convincing someone not to do something when she was angry was so very easy.

But now her mind cleared, filling with all the other times Kara had done something like that – all the little ways in which Kara watched out for Cat beyond any reasonable expectation. It soothed her, giving her what she needed to remember who she really was, or at least, who she had been before Cadmus had wormed their way into her brain. And that woman was one who would do anything she could to protect those she cared about, even if recent events had proved that Cat wouldn’t always be in control.

But she was in control for the moment, she was relatively sure of that, and if Maggie’s worse transgression really was just having a source in Cadmus who might not know anything about Supergirl’s capture, then Cat wanted her to keep looking. Kara’s identity and Maggie’s personal safety were far less important to her than Kara’s return. So that would be Maggie’s fate, to stay on the case, because Cat would not, could not, press for more if there was any chance that another set of eyes out there might bring Kara home.

“Keep them. I have plenty.” She started to step away. It hadn’t been ten minutes yet, but she was done here.

“Ms. Grant, wait,” Maggie deflated, realizing that Cat wasn’t going to give her anything, and Cat paused despite herself. “At least… how is Alex? Can you tell me that much?”

“Alex is…” What could she say to that? There was no good answer. How could a few words, even from someone like Cat Grant, ever quantify what Alex was going through? “Alex is working.” That was the most she could give.

“I…” Maggie shook her head. “It’s not Cadmus, Ms. Grant. You have to tell–”

“Goodbye, Detective.” Whatever momentary calm had come now began to bleed away, driven back by Maggie’s conviction that they were all wrong.

Because what if they were? Or what if they weren’t and they looked elsewhere anyway? What if Kara was alive now, but wouldn’t be in five minutes? What if Cat not walking away could make all the difference? What it none of it mattered, because Kara was already…

There were too many ‘what ifs,’ and Cat’s skin was starting to itch, sweat breaking out the longer she stayed outside. She needed to go.

_Be safe._ The plea reverberated through her mind as she turned away. _Kara, just… please._

***

“She asked about you.” At the sound of Cat’s voice, Alex’s breath stuttered as she raised her eyes to meet Cat’s slowly. “I just thought–”

“Don’t.” The word cracked, and Alex wished Cat had never spoken.

Their conversation had only lasted five minutes. Alex had counted from where she had been sitting, hunched behind tinted windows in the van. Could Cat really convince Maggie to stop in five minutes? Kara would say yes, but it was a different Cat that Kara would mean. Kara’s Cat was confident, a queen with, if not absolute control, at least the appearance of it. But that wasn’t the Cat Grant Alex was looking at now. And could _this_ Cat be so persuasive? Did she even want to be?

Alex didn’t want to talk about it, because anything she learned about those few minutes would only bring more questions, more distraction. Even this small bit, it made Alex want to turn around, to reach out to Maggie to apologize, to make sure that _she_ was ok, that she would stay safe.

And Alex couldn’t have that, not now. She couldn’t start wondering if Maggie’s question had been genuine, or merely a trick. If Maggie had been looking and finding nothing, or if she knew exactly where to look, and was choosing not to. Alex just couldn’t.

***

Kara wrapped her arms around her knees, resting her head against them. She should be trying to escape again, but thus far all of her attempts had only resulted in pain and she knew Alex would scold her about that when she found her. Which she would, of that Kara was sure. Cat would have noticed the text messages, and even if she didn’t right away, she would certainly have raised the alarm when Kara failed to show up for drinks.

Maggie would also have noticed, but was that a good thing? Maggie hadn’t given her much reason to doubt her motives, and Kara had enjoyed working with her, but she couldn’t shake that last unease. It might not even be intentional, but if Maggie mentioned Kara’s disappearance to the wrong person, someone in Cadmus who did know her identity, what would they do then?

It would be a simple thing for Cadmus to alter case notes or plant misleading evidence, pointing the finger at someone else to keep Supergirl out of play and the DEO distracted for as long as possible.

Whether or not that happened though, Kara believed in Alex, even if it did take her a bit longer to sort things out. And her captor hadn’t done anything to her other than put her in this cage, so aside from what Cadmus could be up to while she was trapped in here, Kara wasn’t especially concerned about her own safety. With the full resources of the DEO looking for her, she only had to be patient.

But not trying to escape again left her alone with her thoughts, which at times seemed worse than the pain.

There was another world out there, maybe more than one, where she was evil, and no matter how much she wanted to argue with the idea that she, in this version of herself, could never willingly choose that, she couldn’t. Even disregarding the red kryptonite, there was too much anger in her. She would have killed for Cat, if they hadn’t found her alive. As it was, she had only barely restrained herself from lashing out, and there had been too many moments where she had almost…

The screech of bending metal sounded, and Kara’s head jerked up as she took in the sight of the woman manipulating a heavy beam into a circular shape. She hadn’t spoken to Kara at all since that first morning, working on a project non-stop with only short breaks for sleep and food, none of which she seemed inclined to share with Kara. Her stomach growled at the thought but she pushed it aside. It would be funny when this was over – when Winn found out she didn’t actually need to eat that often he would probably demand a refund for all the snacks he had lost to her – but for now it was just another little jab that was constantly on her mind.

She had tried to ask for food, or to start another conversation, but the woman was so focused on her task, whether building the structure itself or searing runes into the space around it, that she hadn’t even seemed to hear Kara. Now though, the metal settled into place and when the woman stepped back to observe it, Kara saw her opportunity.

“My name is Kara; I don’t know if you knew that.” She climbed to her feet, hope flaring when the woman shot her an annoyed look. It wasn’t much, but it was more than she had gotten in days, and Kara latched onto it. “I have a sister here, Alex, and I really want to get back to her. She tends to be a bit overprotective, and I’m worried that she hasn’t been sleeping or taking care of herself since she realized I was gone.”

The woman scoffed.

“There are more.” She forgot the restrictions for a moment, stepping forward only to hiss and retreat as the burning erupted across her skin. “Please. I have… there’s Eliza and Jeremiah, my foster parents. Jeremiah has been missing for years. We thought he was dead, but we recently found out he’s still alive and being held captive. It will destroy Alex if she can’t find him, and if something happens to me as well–”

“We all lose people, Supergirl. I’m sorry that some people on this Earth will be hurt by my actions, but if they knew what you really were, they’d thank me.” She walked closer finally, coming to rest on the other side of the bars.

“And what are your actions? What is that thing?” If Kara could only keep her talking, maybe she could figure something out.

“Oh this?” The woman waved at it, a small smile forming on her lips. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Kara kept silent, waiting for her to continue. “If you must know, it’s a portal. Now that it’s complete, it can open a gateway to my world. We’re going through, you and me, and you’re going to stop my Supergirl.”

Kara frowned, eyebrows drawing together. “If you think I’m evil just like your Supergirl, then why would you put us together?”

“Oh keep up, will you?” The woman rolled her eyes. “I told you I know who you are. You’re obsessed with power. My Supergirl is in charge because the anti-kryptonite protection Fort Rozz brought with it means that only another Kryptonian is strong enough to challenge her, and none of them will. You, though? That’s a different story.”

“You think two of us together wouldn’t be able to compromise and share power?” It… she remembered the annoyance she always felt when people called for Superman. How even in her own city, there were still those that would scream his name in distress rather than hers. She didn’t have to like it, but Zatanna was probably right.

“Yes, and even if you both don’t die, the one left will be weak enough that someone else can finish her off. Astra may not be willing to fight Supergirl herself, but she won’t stop one of the other survivors of my world. And after you’re both gone, when Astra is in charge again, she’ll dismantle Myriad. She’s not the same person she was when she landed, and she’s learned enough about us over the past few years to change her mind.”

“You seem to know a lot about my aunt.” Was that something she could use? It felt wrong, seeing Astra as a potential tool towards her freedom, but she tried it anyway. “You mentioned she helped you survive. Were you friends?”

“I don’t have friends.” Something flashed in the woman’s eyes. “Getting close to people is too painful, you taught me that. Eventually Lois realized what you were, but she was convinced right up until the end that if she stayed with you, if she kept writing about you as a hero, she could change you. And you know what she got in return? The day Myriad came online I went to check on her first. I got there just as you snapped her neck because you didn’t need her anymore. She was already a drone, harmless, and you killed her anyway just for the fun of it.”

Kara shuddered, her fingers twitching. How many times had she thought about that? Not many, to be sure, but enough. Sometimes when she was especially angry, when those she loved were threatened, she could feel the power in her hands and hear whispers of how easy it would be to break a human neck. But she couldn’t let this woman see that.

“What if I agree to go with you, not as your prisoner, but as your champion? Let me prove to you that I’m not who you think I am. I’ll fight your Supergirl, but not because I want power. I’ll fight her to free your Earth from Myriad. If I win, and if I survive, you’ll open the portal and send me home.”

The woman laughed and Kara’s heart sank. “As if I would take that risk. Just in case I’m wrong and you two do team up, well, my world can hardly get any worse. I’d rather let one world fall than allow you to take two. After we go through the portal it will collapse behind us and start a chain reaction that will completely cut off my universe from the rest of the multiverse. No one will ever be able to pass in or out of it ever again.”

It didn’t register right away, Kara’s mind not quite able to wrap itself around the meaning of the words, but then they fell into place and terror rose inside of her. It was one thing to travel to another universe, but to be locked away? Zatanna was planning on ripping Kara from her world, her home…

“No!” Kara ignored the pain this time as she lunged towards the bars. “No, you can’t!” She couldn’t lose another world, couldn’t go through that all over again. She couldn’t… Why hadn’t she been fighting more? She had had days, and a little pain had stopped her?

“I’m going to sleep now. The spell needs sunlight to work, so I can’t cast it until tomorrow. You should take a few hours to say goodbye, Supergirl. In the morning, we’re going through that portal, and whether you live or die, you are never coming back.”

Kara screamed, struggling forward with everything she had. It wasn’t enough. The pain surged through her, locking her muscles and pressing down on her until she collapsed to the floor. The woman let her stay there for a few moments, observing her in silence, and then with a flick of her wrist and a mumbled word, she sent Kara flying back to the center.

The burning was gone in an instant, but Kara continue to lie there, trembling. Is this how Cat had felt, waiting each day for a Cadmus operative to come for her? Had she known what they had wanted from her? Had she been this helpless and alone?

The woman knelt down, bringing her eyes level to the immobile Kara. “And my name is Zatanna Zatara, by the way. Remember it. When you die, I want you to know who was responsible.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GIVE IT UP FOR THE EDITORS, all of whom have improved every episode!  
> supercattuccino ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/krystalgoderitch) | [tumblr](http://supercattuccino.tumblr.com/ask)),@spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), @Revolos55 ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Revolos55/pseuds/Revolos55) | [tumblr](http://saunteringvaguelydownwards.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask)) for their beta work on all episodes so far!


	9. Act V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look back at last night and a scary look at tonight’s installment… poor Kara!

  


Atmosphere at its best from @pinkrabbitpro, looking in on Alex and Cat as well as Kara and her current nemesis, Zatanna. Share the love [on Tumblr](http://pinkrabbitpro.tumblr.com/ask) or in the comments here. 


	10. Act V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the DEO continues to look in the wrong place, it’s up to Maggie to figure out the final piece of the puzzle before it’s too late and Kara is lost to them forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t you just love the effect on this gif by @xy0009? ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))

Zatanna turned over restlessly, but once again dreams and thoughts plagued her, that scream Supergirl had emitted near the end echoing over and over. As much as she didn’t want it to, the small seed of doubt was growing and she couldn’t escape it. This Supergirl was so convincing, and while that scream should have confirmed that she was right, that there was a deep rage inside of Supergirl, it had reminded Zatanna of another scream, one she herself had made when she had watched Lois fall to the ground.

Her Supergirl could have easily killed her that day, Zatanna hadn’t tried to hide or defend herself as she rushed out to cradle the lifeless body. But instead, Supergirl had laughed and walked away, because it brought her twisted mind some amusement to know that Zatanna was suffering.

As the years had passed, fight after fight that ended in Zatanna defeated, Supergirl had continued to walk away, and Zatanna realized that like Lois, she was just a pawn to the woman. Supergirl allowed her to live because she enjoyed the game, but eventually, she had tired of her.

That had almost been the end. A fight had come where Supergirl hadn’t bothered to play with her, where she was bored, and that meant Zatanna had outlived her use. The only reason she was still alive was because Astra had stepped in. Astra had said she would finish her off, and Supergirl just hadn’t cared enough anymore to bother with landing the final blow, nodding to her second and walking away for the last time.

Zatanna hadn’t been lying when she said she and Astra weren’t friends, but they were something, comrades of a sort. There was enough between them that after Astra had nursed her back to health, she had used Kryptonian technology to open a portal to a world of Zatanna’s choosing. Zatanna was supposed to stay here, to live her life, but she had lied to Astra, told her she picked this world because there was no Supergirl, that she would be free.

Astra would be so angry when she came back, not that Zatanna expected to live long enough to see that. Opening the portal by herself would use up most of her magic, leaving her just enough to resist Myriad, but this Supergirl would most likely kill her right away once they were through. If it worked it would be worth it though, and if it didn’t, well, if it didn’t, Zatanna had no desire to stick around to see.

Rolling over in bed, Zatanna stared as the woman in the cage, still unmoving, and that scream sounded in her memory again. It was almost funny how for all intents and purposes, in this world their roles were reversed. Zatanna had turned into the villain, the person she hated most.

 _That’s not true. It only looks that way, but it’s not real._ She tried to tell herself that, blocking out Supergirl’s other words.

It was ridiculous, the idea that Supergirl could love. And yet…

Getting up, Zatanna crept towards her, keeping to the shadows and moving slowly so as not to garner attention. As she drew near, she realized she needn’t have bothered, Supergirl’s eyes were pressed tightly closed against the pain. And she was in pain, because Zatanna had been wrong in her initial assessment. Supergirl _had_ moved.

In the hours since Zatanna had last turned away, Supergirl had managed to bring herself closer to the bars, dragging herself when she could no longer walk or crawl. The first few feet had probably gone relatively quickly, but the last few… in the last few the pain would be so great that she would barely be able to move. The prolonged endeavour must be excruciating, but still she was doing it. She was also speaking softly, the alien language escaping in small gasps through clenched teeth.

Zatanna recognized those words, she had heard Astra say them when Zatanna had been in her care. They were prayers to Rao. Zatanna had never bothered to learn for what, exactly, but listening to them had always made her feel better. Did the Supergirl of her Earth pray? She didn’t think so. She couldn’t know for sure of course, but she couldn’t imagine these soulful sounds ever passing that woman’s lips.

“Even if you get right up to the bars, you’ll be in too much pain to do anything about it.” Supergirl’s eyes shot open in surprise. Zatanna hadn’t meant to reveal herself, but this _illusion_ that Supergirl was different here, it made it hard not to.

“I have to try. Isn’t that what you’re doing? You’re willing to go so far to save your world; is it so hard to believe that I would be willing to go just as far to save mine?”

“Your world will continue on without you though. It won’t fall just because you leave.”

“No, but it is still my world.”

Zatanna shook her head, calling on her power and sending Supergirl back to the center of the cell, trying to block her ears against the strangled sob as hours of work were undone.

“This is foolish. You should conserve your strength for the coming fight.”

Supergirl ignored her, pulling herself up slowly and starting to crawl forward again.

“You know, they say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Doing this only proves my point, that you’re just as insane and broken as the Supergirl of my Earth.”

“I am not her,” Supergirl said, inching closer.

 _Please stop!_ The thought caught her off guard with its intensity. She wasn’t used to this, to torturing someone. Yes, she had hurt people, was willing to kill if she had to, but this was different. Early on, that first day, she had taken some sadistic pleasure in Supergirl’s pain, but now even the memory of that emotion made her feel sick. She had to end this before her misgivings grew any stronger.

Zatanna sent Supergirl back to the center of the cage again and turned away. The light was just starting to break through the hole in the roof on the other side of the hanger, and Zatanna let out a relieved sigh. She only had to hold out for a little bit longer.

“It’s too late, Supergirl. It’s morning.”

Supergirl didn’t respond, only took up her prayers again, and without looking Zatanna knew she was resuming her efforts. But it didn’t matter. The sun was here, and it was time to get to work.

***

Maggie was up and dressed before dawn broke over National City, rising early the same as every day since Kara had gone missing. Her feet protested as she shoved them into her boots, but she tamped down on her wince and pulled the laces tighter. She couldn’t give up, she knew what would happen if she did.

She spent her mornings and afternoons combing every inch of the area around the airport before heading back to the office to do whatever else she could there. After four days though – five if today proved to be just as fruitless – she was having to face the possibility that the single, drunk witness who had said he had seen the woman around the airport had had no idea what he was talking about. But if Maggie stopped, there would be no one looking for Kara, not really. And that, just like Kara going missing in the first place, would be all Maggie’s fault because she hadn’t come forward.

As long as she was searching she could cling to that last shred of belief that somewhere, under Cadmus, she was still a good cop, a good _person_. That the people she was able to protect by her silence were objectively worth more than a single person.

Finishing with her shoes, Maggie stood and began to pack gear into a backpack, water and energy bars as well as a first aid kit. She paused when she came to her notepad, riffling through pages until she found the transcript that cited the airport as a possible place of interest. She hadn’t reread it up until this point, as if she could forget Kara’s excited babbling about the lead, but maybe… Maggie frowned at the scribble in front of ‘airport’; she only vaguely remembered making that. The man had started to say something but it had turned into a hiccup, and Maggie had crossed out the syllable when he hadn’t repeated it.

She stared at it now, trying to remember. An ‘o’ wasn’t it? There were a number of landmarks in the city that could apply to, the Otto Binder Bridge being the most prominent. But what of the others? Scrambling, Maggie flipped open her laptop, waiting impatiently for the screen to load and pulling up a web search.

And there it was. National City’s Otto Binder Airport. It was small, abandoned for years, and had been reclassified as a dumping ground, but it was there.

It couldn’t be that simple… could it? Had she had the information to find Kara all along?

Maggie was out the door and in her car in seconds, heart thumping in her chest. It was a long shot, but if… if that’s what the man had been trying to say, she had been searching in the wrong place. She pushed the car into drive and dug out her phone from her pocket, foregoing safety to pull up Alex’s contact information as she merged into traffic. It rang once and then clicked over to voicemail, and Maggie gritted her teeth as the automated tone told her to leave a message.

“Listen, Alex. It’s probably nothing, but I think the witness who said to check around the airport might have been talking about the old Otto Binder Airport in the northwest section of the city. I’m headed there now just in case, but I thought you should know.”

She hit the call end button, tossing her phone into the cup holder so she could access it quickly if she happened to get a call back. Maybe it was cruel to give Alex this when there was so little to back it up, Maggie could already feel how the kernel of hope was sinking its claws painfully into her own chest, but she wasn’t going to make the mistake of it being a legitimate lead and getting herself killed without anyone to follow up.

It took twenty minutes to reach the airport, but only because she flipped on the lights and sirens until she was a few blocks away. It took another thirty minutes after that to scout the area, keeping to the shrinking shadows with her gun drawn, the crumbling buildings and old hangers silent and empty around her.

With each minute that passed her hope began to fade again, and she blinked back the frustrated tears that were pricking at the corners of her eyes. It was stupid, a hiccup and she had rushed out here, had called Alex without thinking it though. It was…

 _There!_ Maggie was approaching one of the larger hangers when she saw it, bright lights shining out from a collapsed section of roof. She forced herself not to run, watching where she placed each foot as she checked the area for sentries and sidled her way up to the side door. It wasn’t locked, whoever was using this place didn’t expect to be disturbed, and Maggie slowly cracked it open and peered inside.

She saw the woman first; it was impossible not to. She was standing in front of some huge metal structure, directing a beam of light from her right hand into a glowing panel, which in turn was feeding power into the structure. That was the thing that had created the lights she had seen from outside, swirling blues and greens and yellows as what looked like a portal right out of a sci-fi show grew in the center.

Even from behind, Maggie knew it was the woman from the security footage, the one she and Kara had been hunting before it had all fallen apart. She had the same dark hair and her clothes, the black trousers and suit jacket, looked identical. There were signs that the woman had been living here for some time: a bed, a hot pot of sorts, and… _Kara_!

Kara lay crumpled on the floor, confined within a cage in the corner, and Maggie couldn’t look away, not even to check if the other woman was still distracted. She crouched down, making herself as small as possible as she crossed the space between them, not sure if she wanted this moment to stretch on forever or to be over.

Right now Kara was still alive in theory. There was no sheen of blood, no stench of a dead body, but once Maggie got close she would have to face the truth. And what if that truth was that she had been too late by hours? By minutes?

“Maggie?” It was just a whisper, but Maggie could have sobbed as Kara’s eyes met hers, unbelieving and confused. “Maggie, what are you…? Where’s Alex?”

“Shhh…” And now Maggie did glance back, but the woman was still turned away from them, fully absorbed in her task. “I’m going to get you out of here, Kara. And then I’ll take you to Alex. Just let me…” Maggie trailed off, frowning at the lack of a lock on the cage, trying to figure out what kept Kara inside.

“The runes.” Kara’s voice was strained, and now that Maggie’s eyes had adjusted to the dim light in this corner, she could see the look of pain on Kara’s face. “It’s magic, Maggie. I’ve been trying to get out, but the runes…”

A chill swept over Maggie as she took in the drag marks from the center of the cage to where Kara was now, a few feet from the bars. She didn’t know about magic, but she supposed with everything else that had been proven to exist in this strange world, why not? And if it was keeping Kara here, _hurting_ her, well, Maggie could put aside her questions for later.

Setting down her gun and grabbing the tactical knife from the sheath at her ankle, Maggie studied the first rune, and then with one eye on Kara to make sure it wouldn’t make things worse, she dug the blade into the symbol, slashing it and distorting the image. The pain on Kara’s face eased instantly, and Maggie wasted no time in turning to the next. By the fourth one Kara was on her knees, and at the fifth the door swung loose.

“Come on, Kara.” Maggie reached out her hand, careful not to cross the boundary fully in case she hadn’t done enough and it trapped her inside as well. Her fingers closed around Kara’s wrist, and with a solid yank, she pulled her through.

Kara landed on the ground next to her, and Maggie’s fingers trembled as she ran her hand over Kara’s back, feeling the deep gulps of air Kara took as she tried to steady herself. She wished she could give Kara a minute, but they weren’t safe yet. “We have to get out of here, hur–”

An enraged cry sounded from behind them and Maggie spun around, laying a hand protectively on Kara’s shoulder, trying to keep her down and behind her.

“She’s mine!” The woman was stalking towards them, still connected to the contraption by a beam of light, but her eyes were fixed firmly on Kara. “You can’t have her. I need her!”

Maggie tried to move more fully in front of Kara, but Kara was on her feet now, swaying slightly yet standing all the same, and Maggie found that she was the one shielded behind broad shoulders.

“Get out of here, Maggie. I’ll deal with Zatanna,” Kara stepped towards the advancing woman.

“The hell I will,” Maggie scrambled to follow, picking up her gun and pointing it at the woman, _Zatanna_.

“I won’t let you…” Zatanna’s words became an unintelligible string of sounds, and in front of her, Kara tensed.

Nothing happened.

Zatanna’s eyes widened, sweat forming on her brow, and she tried again.

“You’re out of power, Zatanna. You need to–”

 _“No!”_ Zatanna screamed it, along with something else, and then everything went wrong. The light from her hand faltered, splintering as she tried to do too many things at once, and Maggie and Kara flattened to the ground as beams of color scattered and shot outward.

Metal screeched and groaned and Maggie looked up, feeling the inevitable wash over her. She had done her job, had found Kara, and now it was going to end like this. They would be crushed. All of them, but maybe… She tried to roll on top of Kara in some vain attempt to cushion her against the falling debris, hoping Kara would survive until help arrived.

But Kara wasn’t there anymore, already standing again, and Maggie found herself held tightly in Kara’s arms as distance blurred until they were in front of Zatanna. Kara pushed Maggie into the magician and they both fell under her just as the ceiling started to rain down around them, and the death Maggie had been waiting for never came.

***

Kara looked down at the two women as the last of the rubble settled, Maggie’s face unreadable aside from the shock, and Zatanna’s confused and afraid.

“Y–you saved me. Why?”

There was sunlight on her now, giving her enough of a boost that she had been able to catch the falling ceiling with only minor difficulty, but the danger was by no means past.

“I told you.” She tossed the metal in her arms away, and one last loud clang resounded in the broken space. “I’m not your Supergirl. I’m not…” Kara glanced at the portal, or what was left of it.

Because of its placement under the part of the roof that had already been broken, the structure had escaped intact, but the same could not be said for the portal itself. It had begun to collapse, withering down to the size of a baseball. It was holding there, but she didn’t think it would last for long, and it was far too small for anyone to fit through.

“It’s going to cut off my world from me.” Zatanna’s voice sounded lost as she noticed it as well. “I can’t… I don’t have enough power left to make it large again, and I can’t shrink organic matter down so I’ll never be able to fit through.”

Kara recognized that pain, so similar to her own.

She stepped over to the panel. “You said this thing needed sunlight, didn’t you? My power comes from the sun, maybe I can…” She tried, a quick blast of heat vision and the portal grew, ever so slightly.

But how much power would it take? She didn’t think she had enough to enable two people to pass through, so Zatanna wouldn’t be able to force her along, but…

Seeing her hesitation, Zatanna scrambled to her, desperate hands landing on her arm, and Kara flinched from her grasp.

“Please! I don’t… I know you won’t come with me, but I can’t be stuck here, on this Earth. I just want… I want to go home. Please, _Kara_.” It was the first, probably only, time Zatanna had acknowledged her name, the word ringing without the scorn that ‘Supergirl’ always contained when coming from her, and as she spoke it, Kara realized she didn’t have a choice.

“Do you still have my suit?” Kara asked, an idea forming.

Zatanna’s forehead wrinkled but she nodded and pulled it from the dimensional pocket. Kara didn’t put it on, but she rummaged through until she found what she was looking for.

“Here.” She pressed the spy beacon into Zatanna’s hands, resisting the urge to clutch it to her chest instead. “Give this to Astra, tell her…” Kara closed her eyes. There were so many things, but she had to hurry. “Tell her about me. Even if you don’t believe what I am, make her believe it. Tell her that I didn’t always become _that_ , and that the girl she knew as a child wouldn’t want that fate for herself. Tell her that I kept this, that… that I have faith in her. Tell her…” Kara trailed off, “tell her that I love her, and that I miss her every day.” Astra just needed a push, and maybe… maybe this would be enough.

Zatanna opened her mouth, but Kara shoved her towards the portal, not wanting to hear it. She understood Zatanna’s fear, but that didn’t mean she had forgiven her, that she didn’t still feel the anger burning through her system. She would do this because it was right, because Astra… because there was an Astra out there who needed it, but it wasn’t for Zatanna. None of it was for the woman who had threatened Cat, who had planned on taking Kara away.

She released her heat vision at the panel in earnest, building on that. She gave it her pain, the reopened wound of Astra’s death, the familiar grief magnified now that she had proof that Astra could have been saved. The portal started to grow, but it was still too small for Zatanna to fit though, so Kara turned her thoughts to Cat.

She wanted to hurt Zatanna for what she had done to Cat, but most of her anger was directed at herself, because she was the reason Cat had been in that situation to begin with. Zatanna had only come to this world to get at Kara, and maybe she was never really going to harm Cat, but regardless Kara hadn’t been able to react in time because she had been distracted.

Cat had forgotten the kiss. Zatanna had said she had erased her memory, and for that at least, Kara could thank her. It should never have happened. Cat was in too much danger already, and Kara needed to protect her with her full focus. Kara gave that to the portal as well, the fact that Cat was better off in a world where she didn’t remember that moment, better off without Kara as anything but an assistant or a shield.

It was growing, almost there, and Kara gave it everything she had left. She gave it her fury at Zatanna, for all the people including herself that the woman had hurt. She gave it Astra, losing her all over again. She gave it Cat, losing what had never really started. And she gave it herself. Kara gave it her anger that this was all inside of her, that some of Zatanna’s words had been true. That she had this darkness and rage, and that she couldn’t promise with absolute certainty that they would never gain control.

The lasers spluttered out and Kara fell to her knees as Zatanna darted through the portal, taking Kara’s last physical tie to her aunt with her. Arms came up to wrap around her as dots began to swarm across her vision and she tilted to the side, her already weakened body not able to contend with the added exertion. In the last second before sleep claimed her she tried to call for Alex, but it was too late. And Alex wasn’t here.

***

Cat stepped into the sunlight, turning her face up to let it wash over her. It didn’t feel right and she quickly looked away, reaching for the side door of the van that was waiting to take her back to her apartment.

The last few hours had been a blur, finding out that they had located Kara, that she was unconscious and drained of power but otherwise fine. Finding out that it had had nothing to do with Cat or Cadmus after all, and being told by J’onn that they wouldn’t hold her any longer. She had tried to argue that, but he had been adamant, and now Cat was on her way back to her apartment and Carter’s father had been informed that he could bring her son home.

She didn’t want that. So what if it hadn’t been her _this time_? Whatever security she had started to feel about herself had been shredded by this experience, and she couldn’t take it back. Next time it might be her, or the time after that, and now that she knew what it felt like to believe that it was… another recurrence would tear her apart.

“Cat.” Alex caught her arm and Cat paused, one foot in the van. “She’s going to wake up soon. Do you want to see her before you go?”

Cat took in the agent. Her exhaustion was palatable, but no longer consuming, and Alex’s eyes were alive again. Maybe Alex was stronger than her, maybe she could do this over and over again, but Cat couldn’t. Cat couldn’t see Kara, let Kara’s brightness ease her worry, let Kara’s optimism and support lull her into thinking that everything would be alright.

“Give her my best.” Cat pulled her arm away, clenching her fist to distract from the ache in her chest.

“She’ll want to see you, Cat, you know–”

“Another day, Agent.” She finished climbing into the van, nodding to the driver and sliding the door closed on whatever ‘maybe someday’ there might have been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GIVE IT UP FOR THE EDITORS, all of whom have improved every episode!  
> supercattuccino ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/krystalgoderitch) | [tumblr](http://supercattuccino.tumblr.com/ask)),@spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), @Revolos55 ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Revolos55/pseuds/Revolos55) | [tumblr](http://saunteringvaguelydownwards.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask)) for their beta work on all episodes so far!


	11. Next week on episode 5 (Surface)

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## NEXT WEEK ON SUPERGIRL VIRTUAL SEASON!

Kara, Cat, and Carter head to Midvale for a much-needed break, but Kara is in for a surprise when Carter thinks she’s dating his mom.

And Alex and Maggie’s relationship heats up.

Don’t miss episode 5 - Surface by @ofendlesswonder! Beginning Monday on the [Supergirl Virtual Season](http://archiveofourown.org/users/sgvirtualseason)! 

Special thanks to @reginalovesemma ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/reginalovesemma) | [tumblr](http://reginalovesemma.tumblr.com)) for the lovely gifset!! You can leave comments about it here, or hit the [tumblr ask box](http://reginalovesemma.tumblr.com/ask). 


	12. BONUS CONTENT

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Maggie and Kara trying to find a way to work together...

Give it up for @mitski! ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mitski) | [tumblr](http://mitski.tumblr.com)). You can leave comments about it here, or hit the [tumblr ask box](http://mitski.tumblr.com/ask).


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